THOUSANDS of Britons who were stranded in Sharm el-Sheikh following the Russian plane crash were flown home over the weekend. Around 1,400 holidaymakers were brought back from the Egyptian resort on Friday and many more were due to return over the course of the weekend. The UK Government suspended air links on Wednesday after an Airbus 321 operated by Russian airline Metrojet crashed, killing all 224 people on board.

Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin said information obtained by UK officials indicated there was a “high probability” that the aircraft was brought down by an explosive device, though he said he was still waiting for final confirmation.

Tourists were stranded after authorities brought in stringent security measures, with customers stopped from taking hold luggage on any of the flights.

Meanwhile, a missile that came within 1,000ft of a plane carrying British tourists to Sharm el-Sheikh was “probably a flare”, investigators found. The near-miss involving a Thomson jet carrying 189 passengers happened on August 23.

The Department for Transport (DfT) said its investigation concluded it was not a “targeted attack”, while Thomson said there was “no cause for concern” for further flights.

A spokesman for Tui Group, which owns Thomson, said the DfT probe found“it was not a targeted attack and was likely to be connected to routine exercises being conducted by the Egyptian military in the area at the time...their view also at the time was that it was probably a flare.”