A Russian plane carrying over 224 people on board has crashed in central Sinai, Egypt confirmed Saturday.

A statement from the prime minister’s office said Sherif Ismail had formed a cabinet level crisis committee to deal with the crash, Reuters and Ria Novosti report.

The Airbus A-321 belonging to Kogalymavia airline, a small airline based in Western Siberia, had just taken off from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, on its way to the Russian city of St Petersburg.

Earlier, in a conflicting report, the Egyptian air accident chief said the Russian plane had safely left Egyptian airspace and made contact with Turkish air traffic control.

“The… Russian airline had told us that the Russian plane we lost contact with is safe and that it has contacted Turkish air traffic control and is passing through Turkish skies now,” Ayman al-Muqaddam said in a statement.

A source in the Russian air traffic controller told Ria Novosti that the plane went missing near Cyprus rather than over Sinai.

But some Egyptian media claim the crash site has already been discovered in Egypt.

Egyptian sources told Reuters there were 212 people on board when the plane went down, most of them Russian tourists. Russian sources put the number at 224.

(Asia Times)