RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin yesterday agreed to suspend all Russian flights to Egypt after a recommendation by his chief of intelligence for a halt until the cause of last week’s crash of a passenger jet in the Sinai Peninsula is determined, as an official said pieces of wreckage from the plane had been brought to Moscow to test for possible traces of explosives.

The suspension came after several days of statements by British and American officials that it was possible a bomb on board had brought down the Russia carrier Metrojet’s Airbus A321-200, which crashed 23 minutes after takeoff from the Sinai resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, killing all 224 people on board. Russian and Egyptian officials had bristled at the statements, saying it was too soon to tell the cause.

The suspension, covering all of Egypt, is even more sweeping than that imposed by Britain, which had halted flights to Sharm el-Sheikh only.

“I think it will be reasonable to suspend all Russian flights to Egypt until we determine the real reasons of what happened,” intelligence chief Alexander Bortnikov Bortnikov said in televised comments.

“It concerns tourist flights most of all.”

Russia’s emergency situations minister, Vladimir Puchkov, said wreckage from the plane has been taken to Moscow for tests.

“These are necessary samples from all parts where traces of explosives could be. All of these samples have been delivered to Moscow, and we are studying them,” he said.

Britain’s efforts, meanwhile, to bring home hundreds of British tourists stranded at Sharm el-Sheikh airport by its suspension of flights were snarled by new security measures put in place for its planes, including a ban of checking in luggage.

Tempers ran high among the crowds of tourists in the airport departure lounge. When United Kingdom Ambassador John Casson appeared to reassure them, one irate British tourist who had waited at the airport since early morning hours harangued him with angry shouts of: “When are we going home?”

Britain had grounded all flights to and from Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula on Wednesday, saying there was a “significant possibility” the Russian airliner that crashed last Saturday, killing 224 people, was downed by a bomb. London approved the resumption of flights starting yesterday, though passengers were allowed only to take carry-on bags with them.

Egypt, however, prevented some flights from coming to pick up the tourists because of the pile-up of baggage. Its civil aviation minister, Hossam Kamal, said there would be eight flights in all to the UK yesterday, instead of the 29 planned earlier. He said the British airlines are flying without passengers’ luggage, while Sharm el-Sheikh airport’s storage can hold no more than 120 tons of luggage left behind.

“This big volume will affect the smooth operation of the rest of the domestic and international flights,” said Kamal, adding that a cargo plane would carry bags separately for each flight.

British carrier EasyJet had been due to operate 10 flights from the resort, but said eight of them had been blocked by Egypt.

“We are working with the UK government on a solution,” it said in a statement.

Two other carriers, Monarch and British Airways, said they still planned to operate flights back from Sinai yesterday.

The development is likely to hinder attempts to bring back an estimated 20,000 UK nationals in Sharm el-Sheikh. Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin said earlier yesterday that “most of the people who were expecting to be home by tonight will be home by tonight.”

On the ground in Sharm el-Sheikh, employee Mohammed Abdel Fattah who works as a handling agent for EasyJet, said two of the airline’s flights to the UK have been checked in. He told the rest of EasyJet passengers to return to their hotels, “until there are new updates.”

“Why all of a sudden is everything on hold?” asked stranded British tourist Carla Dublin. “We don’t know what’s going on.”

Casson, the ambassador, tried to reassure the tourists, saying British authorities will “continue to work until we have everybody home.”

“There are challenging issues to work through,” he said.

Early in the morning, the Egyptians carried out expanded security checks as dozens of buses ferrying tourists waited outside the airport.

Russia and Egypt have dismissed Western suggestions that a bomb might have caused the crash, saying the speculation was a rush to judgment and insisting the investigation must run its course. The United States and British leaders have stopped short of a categorical assignment of blame in the crash, but Prime Minister David Cameron said on Thursday it was “more likely than not” that the cause was a bomb.

Inside the crowded airport, British tourists said they were just anxious to get home.

“We were in the first flights that were cancelled on Wednesday night, we were already queuing to board,” said Amy Johnson, a 27-year-old British administrative assistant hoping to catch an EasyJet flight out.

The British Department for Transport said travelers should not leave for the Sharm el-Sheikh airport unless they have a confirmed flight.

Meanwhile, Dutch carrier KLM said it instructed its passengers leaving from the Egyptian capital of Cairo that they can take only hand luggage on the plane departing yesterday.

A statement on its website said the measure was “based on national and international information and out of precaution.”

Security officials at the Cairo airport said that flight KL554 left for Amsterdam yesterday morning with only 115 passengers out of the 247 who were booked on the flight. The rest refused to leave without taking their check-in bags, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders said his government’s decision was linked to lax security. “We have the impression that there are insufficient security measures there,” he said.

Air France said yesterday it is reinforcing screening, as France’s Foreign Ministry urged its citizens to avoid Sharm el-Sheikh and also the Sinai resort of Taba as well as surrounding areas, unless they have an “imperative reason” to go.