Russia plane crash: Stranded Britons 'home by weekend'

A "backlog" of Britons stuck in Sharm el-Sheikh after a plane crash 11 days ago should be cleared by the end of the week, the foreign secretary has said.

Routine UK-bound flights were suspended and security raised amid fears the crash was caused by a bomb.

Special flights began on Friday and Philip Hammond said 7,000 Britons will have returned by the end of the day.

Those tourists stranded beyond their planned return date were set to arrive home soon after that, he said.

Meanwhile, Easyjet's chief executive is backing calls to tighten airport security around the world.

Carolyn McCall, whose airline has spent five days battling to fly home stranded tourists, told the BBC it was time for a fundamental rethink in the wake of the crash.

Her comments came as Dutch tour operator Corendon revealed it had stopped offering holidays in Sharm el-Sheikh in early 2014 after receiving intelligence information.

'Going smoothly'

Some 20,000 British nationals were thought to be in the resort at the time of the crash on 31 October. All 224 people on board the Russian Metrojet flight from Sharm el-Sheikh to St Petersburg died when the aircraft came down in the Sinai desert.

About 9,000 of the Britons were on package trips with tour operators, while several thousand others had travelled there independently.

Passengers are being allowed to travel with hand baggage only - their hold luggage is to be flown back separately by the government in the next week.

Mr Hammond said the government's insistence on the "very significant increased security requirements" had caused some delays.

But he added: "In the circumstances, the repatriation is going smoothly."

All UK airlines have suspended flights from the UK to Sharm el-Sheikh for at least the next two weeks. And the Foreign Office is advising Britons stranded in Sharm el-Sheikh not to travel home independently.

Concern over devices

While security has been stepped up at the resort's airport, concerns have been raised over the use of bomb detectors at some hotels in the resort.

The Sun reported that a "wand-like aerial" attached to an empty box was waved over cars and luggage in the resort and a security expert told the newspaper it was "absolutely pointless".

In response, a UK Foreign Office spokeswoman said: "Across the resort, airport style scanners, sniffer dogs, body searches, metal detectors, private security, police and CCTV are being used to keep tourists safe.

"We will continue to raise our concerns over the use of the devices in question."