Outside the terminal, doctors, and nurses, as well as military personnel, have been seen going into the hall where relatives of the passengers of the missing plane are being kept.

The Egyptian aviation ministry has announced a press conference due to take place at 1.30pm local time (11.30am GMT).

Confusingly, a statement posted on the official Facebook page of the Egyptian army says the army did not receive a distress signal from the plane.

It is not clear whether this contradicts the EgyptAir report that a signal was received from the plane’s emergency devices – presumed to be a locator transmitter or beacon – at 04.26 local time (02.26 GMT), two hours after the last radar contact. It could refer to the previous statement by EgyptAir that no distress call was received from the cockpit.

In the army statement, the spokesman of the Egyptian army, Brigadier General Mohammed Samir, said the army had not received any distress call from the missing plane.

(Extract from Guardian online)

Click here to find out more.