Several hundred Scots are stranded in Egypt after mounting evidence a Russian airliner was downed by a bomb leading to all flights between the UK and Sharm el-Sheikh being suspended.

Nicola Sturgeon has told Holyrood that the Scottish government's resilience committee had met to discuss the situation.

All UK flights to and from the Egyptian resort have been suspended amid concerns from Downing Street that the Russian plane that crashed in the Sinai region killing all 224 people on board was brought down by an "explosive device".

A Scots grandmother has told of her  shock at being caught up in the travel ban which saw them marooned in their hotel.

Elaine Oldham and her partner David were due to travel back to Scotland on Wednesday afternoon when they were told they could not get the flight.

Council worker Elaine, 63, from Stewarton, Ayrshire, said: “When we do head back, we will no doubt all be a little wary getting on the flight. It came as a surprise that we weren’t going back but you have to make the most of it."

A Thomson Airways flight to Sharm el-Sheikh due to fly from Glasgow at 7am on Thursday has been cancelled.  Another flight that had been due to arrive in Glasgow on Thursday evening has also been grounded.

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The First Minister said Transport Scotland had been in touch with Thomson's Holidays to discuss the support and advice provided.

She added:  "I want to assure the chamber that the Scottish government will continue to liaise closely with UK government colleagues to ensure that all appropriate support is in place."

Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said holidaymakers will probably start being flown home tomorrow but ruled out using RAF planes to extract standed Brits.
He said: “We have emergency short term measures that will allow us to bring people back and expect them to be in operation by tomorrow.”

“The measures will remain in place as we bring people out over the next week or 10 days.”

British tourists stranded in Sharm el-Sheikh say they have been "kept in the dark" - and still do not know when they can return home.

Adam, from Sheffield, said he was due to fly back to the UK with his brother on Friday, but has "no idea whatsoever" about what will happen. He said he had received only "generic information" from the airline.

Adam, who declined to give his full name, has been staying at the Radisson Blu resort, nine miles from Sharm el-Sheikh international airport.

Emergency screening is being put in place at the popular resort's airport to allow British nationals to be flown home after an inspection by UK experts resulted in all flights in and out of the popular Red Sea resort being halted.

The team was sent in by the Government after fresh intelligence suggested there was a "significant possibility" that a bomb had been placed on a Russian aircraft that crashed 20 minutes after taking off.

A meeting of the emergency Cobra committee, chaired by the Prime Minister, decided to issue a warning against "all but essential" travel through the airport - effectively barring flights to and from the UK.

Sharm el-Sheikh has become an increasingly popular tourist destination for Scots, with direct flights available from Glasgow and Edinburgh.

A Thomson Airways spokesman said: "Following the change in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) travel advice advising against all but essential air travel to Sharm el Sheikh, Thomson Airways can confirm it has cancelled all outbound flights to Sharm el Sheikh up to and including Thursday 12th November.  

"All customers booked to travel to Sharm el Sheikh in this period will be provided with a full refund.  As a priority, we are contacting customers due to travel tomorrow and ask those travelling later in the week to please bear with us as we manage this evolving situation. 

Our experienced overseas resort team will be updating all our customers currently on holiday in Sharm el Sheikh of the change in FCO travel advice and we will be making arrangements to return these customers to the UK."

The move - angrily denounced by Egypt's foreign minister as a "premature and unwarranted" step that would smash its tourist industry - was announced as the country's president Abdel Fatah al-Sisi arrived in the UK for a scheduled visit.

He is due to hold talks with Mr Cameron at 10 Downing Street later today.

Downing Street made the announcement made the announcement about suspended flights on Wednesday night in a move that could affect the estimated 20,000 British people in the popular Egyptian resort at the moment.

Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said he recognised the potential "huge negative impact" but insisted ministers had no choice but to act on intelligence "which we believe represents a threat to British nationals".

He said his angry counterpart Sameh Shoukry "hasn't seen all the information that we have".

"While we regard the Egyptians as very important partners - and want to work with them not just on airport security but on all aspects of the development of their economy and the building of Anglo-Egyptian relations - when we see something which we believe represents a threat to British nationals we have to act on it and the other consequences have to be dealt with."

The decision was taken "very reluctantly", he said, and praised Egyptian authorities for "moving heaven and earth to meet our demands on the ground".

Officials are working with airlines to find a way to safely return people to the UK - either on their scheduled flight or earlier if they wish - although no flights are expected to leave before at least Friday.

The change in official Foreign Office travel advice applied only to the airport, with Sharm itself - where there are believed to be 20,000 Britons at present including a small proportion of ex-pats - still considered safe.

Mr Hammond apologised for the "immense disruption and inconvenience" caused - including to people who had been forced to return to hotels from the airport.

"I also recognise the immense impact that this will have on the Egyptian economy. But we have to put the safety and security of British nationals above all other considerations.

"When we are in possession of information we will not hesitate to act on it in order to protect that security and we will take whatever criticisms we receive."

The US also said initial intelligence suggested the plane - an Airbus operated by Metrojet and bound for St Petersburg carrying mostly Russian tourists - had been blown up by terrorists.

Cairo has sought to dismiss claims that the crash was the work of Islamist terrorists, such as the self-styled Islamic State (IS) and complained that the UK had acted before investigations were complete.

Mr Hammond said the Cobra meeting of senior ministers and security officials "reviewed all the information that we have available from a range of sources" about the plane crash.

"As a result of that review we have concluded there is a significant possibility that that crash was caused by an explosive device on board the aircraft," he said.

Downing Street said the information that prompted the move included "some that has recently come to light".

It was reported intercepted communications played some part in a preliminary US finding that a bomb had been planted on the aircraft by IS's Sinai affiliate - though there had been no formal conclusions drawn.