[McGruff]

US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said today he knew of no “direct evidence” that terrorism was to blame for the weekend plane crash of a Russian passenger plane in Egypt.

Speaking at a Washington defense summit, Mr Clapper said it was “unlikely” that the Islamic State group had the capacity to carry out such an attack, but added “I wouldn’t rule it out.”

[COUNTrecount]

The Metrojet Airbus A321-200 broke up mid-air on Saturday shortly after takeoff from the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to St Petersburg, scattering fragments of wreckage over a wide area in Sinai (left). Terrorism and aviation experts believe a bomb is the only likely explanation, citing the fact there was no distress call from the pilots and that some wreckage shows the fuselage skin peeling outwards (inset) possibly due to a 'force acting outwards from within'. Alexander Smirnov, the deputy general director of Metrojet's parent company Kogalymavia, also told a news conference in Moscow today that the cause of the crash 'could only have been a mechanical impact on the plane' in the air.