CAIRO — Investigators have found no evidence so far that a bomb brought down the Russian passenger plane that crashed after breaking up in midair over the Sinai, Egypt said Thursday.
"The investigation team does not have yet any evidence or data confirming this hypothesis," Aviation Minister Hossam Kamal said in a statement.
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev echoed Kamal's comments, telling a government meeting Thursday that it was too early to draw any conclusions about the incident's causes, Reuters reported.
Their comments came as "emergency measures" were being drafted to rescue thousands of vacationers stranded in Sharm el-Sheikh after Britain and Ireland suspended flights to and from the Red Sea resort.
But Kamal insisted Sharm el-Sheikh's airport met international standards and said flights from Russia, Ukraine and Saudi Arabia were continuing to arrive.
U.S. officials told NBC News that intelligence indicates a device placed on the Russian charter jet caused it to break up in midair Saturday, killing all 224 on board. Investigators are said to be focused on the possibility that ISIS operatives or sympathizers were directly involved.
However, the State Department said Wednesday that it wasn't definitively prepared to say that the Metrojet crash was a terrorist act.