A Russian passenger aircraft carrying 224 people crashed in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula Saturday with most of those on board feared dead as the jet’s wreckage was found in a mountainous area.
According to AFP, the crash site is in an area where the Egyptian government is fighting an insurgency led by a local Islamic State Affiliate but security sources had earlier said there was no indication that the plane had been shot down or blown up.
The IS statement, published through a messaging application, did not say how militants downed the plane.
Search and rescue teams have so far found more than 100 bodies.
Egypt Prime Minister Sharif Ismail went to the scene of the crash alongside the tourism and health ministers and offered his condolences to the Russian ambassador.
The Egyptian air traffic control had lost contact with the aircraft shortly after it took off from the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh for St Petersburg.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared a day of national mourning.