Britain’s Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond says there is a high probability that a bomb planted by an ISIL supporter brought down the Russian airliner which crashed over Egypt just over a week ago.

He noted that this doesn’t necessarily mean that the attack was directed from the group’s headquarters in Syria.

“It may have been an individual who was inspired by the group who was self-radicalised by looking at propaganda and was acting in the name of the group without necessarily being directed,” he said.

His statements come as the US sources suggested that Russian communications intercepted by US intelligence agencies show Russia also believes the plane to have been brought down by a bomb.

Egypt and Russia have not yet formally announced the cause of the disaster.

Earlier, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said the possibility of an act of terror is of course there as the reason for what happened.

Hammond also said that the British government had received information about the disaster that had caused it to suspend flights to Sharm el-Sheikh and to order the evacuation of British tourists there.

“Only an analysis of the wreckage could determine if a bomb caused the crash,” Hammond said.