Islamic State claims video shows it blowing up Russian plane over Egypt

But ISIS has released grainy footage – as yet unverified – which it claims shows the plane exploding mid-air in a ball of flames and coming down in a plume of smoke.

Egypt has also now admitted the pilot did NOT send an SOS signal before the Metrojet plane – whose passengers included 25 children as young as 11 months – broke in two and plummeted out of the sky at 6,000ft per minute.

Egyptian security sources said initial investigations suggest the plane crashed due to a "technical fault".

But a statement on the Aamaq website – which acts as a semi official news agency for ISIS – said: "The fighters of the Islamic State were able to down a Russian plane over Sinai province that was carrying over 220 Russian crusaders.

"They were all killed, thanks be to God."

It said the attack was "in response to Russian airstrikes that killed hundreds of Muslims on Syrian land".

Two major airlines – Lufthansa and Air France – have halted flights over the area until they get a clear explanation of what caused the crash.

Air-crash investigators from Russia, France and Germany are now rushing to the crash site.

The aircraft broke up in mid-air – scattering debris and bodies over a wide area.

The body of a three-year-old girl was found five miles from the crash scene – but authorities are searching even wider as they are yet to recover all the bodies.

Many of the 163 bodies found so far are missing limbs.

An Egyptian security official said: "We found a three-year-old girl eight kilometres from the scene."

Professor Michael Clarke – director general of the Royal United Services Institute – said early indications suggest a bomb ON BOARD may have destroyed the aircraft.

The plane – which was travelling at 31,000ft – was out of range of militants' shoulder-launched rockets – which can only reach 9,000ft.

But the fact that it broke up mid-air suggests an explosion, Prof Clark said.

He said: "Early reports said it split into two and that suggests a catastrophic failure – not a mechanical failure – but perhaps an explosion on board, so I would be much more inclined to think – if we have to guess at this stage – it is much more likely to have been a bomb on board than a missile fired from the ground.

"And there’s no sign of a distress call, so the idea that the aircraft was undergoing an mechanical problem, or an engine problem, or a fire, or something like that – you would expect that there would be some sort of distress call beforehand.

"So the fact that there was a catastrophic failure at 31,000 feet – with the aircraft falling in two pieces – suggests to me an explosion on board."

 (dailystar.co.uk)