Photographs have emerged of the Russian tourist jet that went down over Egypt's Sinai peninsula last weekend, which appear to prove that it was brought down by a bomb.
Images show holes in the wreckage of the Airbus A321 which bear the evidence of having been caused by something from inside the plane.
This follows news of further evidence suggesting that the crash was the result of a bomb planted by Isis militants, U.S. and European security sources said on Wednesday.
The Airbus A321 crashed on Saturday in the Sinai Peninsula shortly after taking off from the resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on its way to the Russian city of St Petersburg, killing all 224 people on board.
Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda has highlighted pictures of the Airbus A321 wreckage in Egypt showing pockmarks in the fuselage.
The holes 'look like marks made by shrapnel', and in addition there are 'holes in the plane parts with the edges curved inside-out.
'We may suppose that these are the holes made by the destructive parts of the bomb,' said the newspaper, which credited bloggers with highlighting the 'evidence'.
One image shows 'small holes at the inner door of the emergency exit at the back part of the plane.
'Such holes could have been made by metal balls, which are often used by terrorists as the destructive parts of the bombs.'
Russian experts say no signs of explosives have been found on the bodies of the victims of the plane crash, but a Russian aviation official said Thursday the investigation was looking into the possibility of an object stowed on board causing the disaster.
'There are two versions now under consideration: something stowed inside (the plane) and a technical fault. But the airplane could not just break apart in the air - there should be some action. A rocket is unlikely as there are no signs of that,' the Russian official said.
The paper points to a three-second video sequence found by bloggers from a Russian TV report which shows 'several holes in the plane'.
Russian Deputy Emergencies Minister Leonid Belyaev said the bodies of 19 passengers had been released for burial today or tomorrow. So far the remains of 58 victims have been identified.
Rescuers have completed a search of a 33 square kilometre area around the crash site, said Alexei Smirnov, head of Russia's National Crisis Management Centre.
'Search effort continues at the crash site. The search zone has been expanded to 40 square kilometres.'
Meanwhile, ISIS representatives have repeated its claims that the militant jihadist organisation was responsible for the crash, adding it would eventually tell the world how it carried out the attack.
Security experts and investigators have said the plane is unlikely to have been struck from the outside and Sinai-based militants are not believed to possess the technology to shoot down a jet from a cruising altitude above 30,000 feet.
Any evidence that a bomb knocked the plane out of the sky would deal a heavy blow to tourism in Egypt, a pillar of the economy that is struggling to recover after years of political turmoil, and would also undermine Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's assertions that Cairo has brought under control Sinai Province's insurgency.
Sinai Province has killed hundreds of Egyptian soldiers and police since President Sisi, as army chief, toppled Islamist President Mohamed Mursi in 2013 after mass protests against his rule.
Sisi was elected president last year on promises he would stabilise Egypt and rebuild its shattered economy.
Critics say his tough crackdown on Islamists will only create more radicals in Egypt, which has fought militants for decades.
(dailymail.co.uk)
www.ann.az
