The bodies of some of the victims of the passenger plane that crashed in Egypt killing everyone on board have been flown back to Russia.
There were 224 people on board the Metrojet Airbus A321-200 which crashed on Saturday morning in the Sinai Peninsula, and the vast majority of them were Russian.
This morning, a plane from the Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations landed in St Petersburg carrying some of the bodies.
The Airbus A321-200 crashed 23 minutes after taking off from Sharm el-Sheikh en route to St Petersburg.
Russia's most senior aviation official has said that it broke up at high altitude.
The ministry has sent more than 100 rescue experts to assist the Egyptian authorities in the search for bodies and debris of the plane.
An outpouring of grief has gripped St Petersburg, home of many of the victims, and President Vladimir Putin declared a nationwide day of mourning.
It has emerged that the Irish Aviation Authority conducted an annual review of the Irish-registered aircraft's certifications last April/May and found them "satisfactory at that point in time".
The Air Accident Investigation Unit made contact with Egyptian aviation authorities almost as soon as it emerged that the Airbus A321 being flown by Russian airline Kogalymavia under the brand name Metrojet had been registered in Ireland in 2012
A militant group affiliated to Islamic State in Egypt said in a statement that it brought down the plane “in response to Russian air strikes that killed hundreds of Muslims on Syrian land”, but Russia’s transport minister Maxim Sokolov said the claim “can’t be considered accurate”.