A Russian airliner with over 220 passengers onboard that was earlier reported to be missing has crashed in Sinai Peninsula today, the official of the Egyptian prime minister has confirmed. A “Russian civilian plane… crashed in the central Sinai,” a statement from the office of Prime Minister Sharif Ismail said.

The Metrojet (formerly Kolavia Airlines) flight had 217 passengers and seven crew members on board which was on its way to Russia after taking off from Sharm el-Sheikh resort on the Red Sea. The aircraft was reported missing minutes after leaving Sharm el-Sheikh. Egypt’s air accident chief said on Saturday that a “missing” passenger plane on its way to Russia had safely left Egyptian airspace and made contact with Turkish air traffic control.

Sergei Lzvolsky, an official with the Russian aviation agency Rosaviatsia told that the plane had departed Egypt’s Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh at 5:51 am local time (03:51 GMT). He said the aircraft did not make contact as expected with air traffic controllers in Cyprus, and “since then the plane has not made contact and has not appeared on radars”.

Earlier, there was confusion on the fate of the plane, while some reports said it had crashed in Sinai, others said the aircraft had made contact with air traffic control. Egyptian prime minister Sherif Ismail has confirmed that the Russian plane crashed near Nekhel in the north of Sinai.

Most people on the plane were Russian tourists, and there were at least 17 children on board.