Home-made bomb blew up plane, says security chief

Ahome-madeexplosive device brought down a Russian passenger plane over Egypt last month, the head of Russia’ s F SB security service said yesterday.

Alexander Bortnikov told Russian president Vladimir Putin it is now clear the bombing which killed 224 people was a “terrorist” act.

The FSB also offered a 50 million US dollar (£33 million) reward for information leading to the arrest of those responsible, appealing to the “Russian and international communities for co-operation in identifying the terrorists”. The FSB specified that the reward would be paid in US dollars.

Islamic State has claimed responsibility for downing the Russian plane in written statements, as well as in video and audio messages posted on the Internet following the crash.

Mr Bortnikov said: “According to our experts, a home-made explosive de- vice equivalent to one kilogram of TNT went off on board, which caused the plane to break up in the air, which explains why the fuselage was scattered over such a large territory.

“I can certainly say that this was a terrorist act.”

He said tests showed the explosives had been produced outside of Russia, but gave no further details.

Mr Putin vowed to hunt down those responsible for the attack.

He said: “There’s no statute of limitations for this. We need to know all of their names.

“We’re going to look for them everywhere, wherever they are hiding. We will find them in any place on Earth and punish them.”

All of the people on board, most of them Russian tourists, were killed when the Metrojet Airbus 321-200 crashed over the Sinai Peninsula on October 31. The plane was headed to St Petersburg, where most of the passengers were from.

Islamic State said the attack was retaliation for Russia’s air campaign against IS andother groups in Syria, where Moscow wants to preserve the rule of President Bashar Assad.

“We will find them in any place on Earth and punish them”

MrPutin saidonTuesday that Russia’s air campaign in Syria “should not only be continued but should be intensified so that the criminals realise that retribution is inevitable”.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the president’s order did not mean that Russia was considering sending ground troops to Syria.

Mr Putin’s meeting with Mr Bortnikov was held late at night, after the president returned from meetings in Turkey, at which the leaders from the Group of 20 rich and developing nations vowed to work together to combat Islamic State.

Egyptian military approach wreckage from the Russian passenger jet