BREAKING NEWS: Missing Russian passenger plane with 220 tourists on board 'may have crashed in Egypt's Sinai desert'

Egyptian air traffic control lost contact with a civilian airliner carrying more than 220 people shortly after it took off from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to head to Russia, aviation sources said on Saturday.

The sources said the passenger plane was mainly carrying Russian tourists and that a search was underway.

Security sources in the Sinai Peninsula confirmed reports that an aircraft was missing.

There are various conflicting reports over where the aircraft lost contact with air traffic controllers. 

According to Russian news agencies, the aircraft was an Airbus A-321 operated by Kogalymavia Aircraft.

The Egyptian prime minister Sharif Ismail said: 'Russian civilian plane... crashed in the central Sinai.'

His office confirmed that a cabinet level crisis committee has been established to deal with the crisis.

It is understood that the aircraft had just taken off on a four-hour flight to St Petersburg when it went missing shortly after take off. 

The Airbus A321-231 is believed to have been manufactured in 1997 and is owned by a Dublin-based company.