The BBC's Ranyah Sabry reports from Cairo that the black box from the plane has been found.

Russia's Premier League says, external all football games today will start with a minute of silence following the plane crash in Egypt.   

Watch the latest report from the BBC's Sarah Rainsford in Moscow. 

There have been a number of air disasters in recent months and years. 

In June, 141 died when an Indonesian Hercules C-130 military transport plane crashed into a residential area. In March, Germanwings Airbus A320 airliner crashed in the French Alps near Digne, on a flight from Barcelona to Dusseldorf. All 150 people on board died.

2014 saw a number of high-profile incidents - two of which involved Malaysian airlines. 

Here's a chronology of major air disasters since 1998.

Our Egypt correspondent Orla Guerin has been providing updates from Cairo. 

You can watch her latest dispatch here. 

People are gathering at the information desk of Russian airline Kogalymavia at Pulkovo airport in St Petersburg hoping to find out more information about the flight that has crashed in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. 

Image source, EPA

Image source, AP

Aviation expert Professor Graham Braithwate says conflicting information is understandable in the circumstances of this crash.

All the reports at the moment cannot be correct and jumping on misinformation can be damaging, he says.

The BBC Travel Show's Simon Calder says he understands concerns about flying in light of recent incidents. 

High-profile cases have understandably made headlines, but aviation continues to get safer year-on-year, he says.

Egypt has postponed the launch of an initiative to promote tourism because of the Russian plane crash, BBC Monitoring quotes the state-run Mena news agency as saying.

"The conference was postponed due to the presence of the tourism minister at the operation room chaired by Prime Minister Sharif Isma'il to follow up the Russian plane crash," a tourism ministry spokesperson said.

The Russian passengers on board had been in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on the Red Sea, one of the most popular areas in the world for diving:

Image source, AFP

More from Reuters. The news agency reports Russia's Investigative Committee is launching a case against the airline - Kogalymavia.

Their report says the case will be under an article regulating "violation of rules of flights and preparations for them".

Russia's embassy in Egypt has been tweeting about the incident (below in Russian).

Our colleagues at BBC Monitoring have translated the tweets, which say:

1. The plane attempted to land at El Arish airport, Egyptian officials say
2. The recovery of bodies has begun:

BBC Monitoring

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has ordered the country's Transport Minister Maksim Sokolov to fly to Egypt in the wake of the crash. 

Information from the Sinai is emerging slowly. Here's what we know at the moment:

• An airliner has crashed in central Sinai, with more than 200 people on board
• It had just taken off from Sharm el-Sheikh and was bound for St Petersburg
• The plane disappeared from radar screen travelling at 31,000ft, according to Egyptian officials

• All of those on board were Russian, they added
• Both Russian and Egypt are expected to hold investigations into the cause of the incident 

An officer has told Reuters a number of bodies, including children, have been pulled from the plane wreckage. 

This information has not yet been verified by the BBC. 

Egypt's top prosecutor has ordered an investigation into the cause of Saturday's crash, Reuters reports based on a source from the prosecutor's office. 

A team will go to the site and investigate debris, Reuters says. 

Image source, AP

Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed condolences to families of those killed in the crash and ordered the government to launch an official investigation. 

Orla Guerin
BBC News, Cairo

The Russian passenger plane carrying 217 passengers and seven crew people took off from the Red Sea resort of Sharm El Sheikh shortly before 06:00 local time (04:00 GMT).

Twenty three minutes later the plane, bound for St Petersburg, disappeared from radar screens. Among those on board were 17 children.

It is unclear what caused the crash. Militants allied with Islamic state are active in the Sinai Peninsula, but at this stage there is no indication that the aircraft was targeted.

Egyptian officials say all the passengers were Russian. The bodies of the dead will be brought to Cairo.

The wreckage was found in a mountainous area of central Sinai. Access to the site will be tightly controlled by the Egyptian military, which operates closed zones in Northern Sinai.

Voices of trapped passengers could he heard in a section of the plane, Reuters is reporting, quoting an officer on the scene of the crash. 

The Israeli military says it was involved in the search for the downed airliner earlier. It says it will continue to offer assistance to Egypt and Russia if needed.