GETTY Tourists flying into the popular Egyptian resort could be at risk

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The chilling revelation comes from a top security expert, who spoke to Express.co.uk about the volatile situation in Sinai following the downing of a Russian passenger plane with 224 people on board. Islamist militia groups operating in the region have access to surface-to-air missiles, which are capable to hitting targets up to 10,000ft high.

Many of the weapons were lost during the fall of Colonel Gaddafi in 2011. And while their role in the loss of the Russian jet on Saturday has been called into question, Justin Bronk, a UK defence analyst, said Sharm el-Sheikh airport was at risk.

GETTY Sharm el-Sheikh airport, with the mountains in the background

GETTY Surface to air missile left behind by the Libyan regime in 2011

He told Express.co.uk that the terrain around the airport was well-suited to a low-grade, shoulder-mounted rocket launcher that could bring down a commercial aircraft. He said: "Against airliners, they [surface-to-air missiles] are a huge problem, but that would be on take off or landing near an airport. "Sharm is a fairly open place in terms of the terrain, there are lots of mountains nearby which are fairly rugged. It is pretty rugged terrain."

GETTY Libyans examine an unguarded weapons stockpile of shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles

The warning has so far gone unheeded by most Western governments and airlines, which continue to fly in and out of the resort. But British experts are meeting to decide whether the Russian airliner crash in Egypt should force any change in UK security plans and travel advice. Prime Minister David Cameron said people should not stop flying to the popular Red Sea resort despite claims by airline Metrojet that its aircraft was brought down by an "external impact". Mr Cameron said security officials were "looking very carefully" at whether there was any ongoing safety risk posed by the incident.

Around 900,000 Britons visit Egypt every year, and any change about security information would not be based on "speculation" about the causes, he added. "There is a meeting taking place right now to try to find out everything that we know and if it's not safe - if certain routes aren't safe or certain things aren't safe - of course we will act," he told ITV.

GETTY The holiday resort of Sharm el-Sheikh

Mr Cameron, who spoke yesterday with Russian president Vladimir Putin about the crash, added: "If anything changes, we don't sit around and chew our pens and not act. If anything changes it will be announced very quickly. "But as I say we must do it on the basis of evidence and not on speculation." Emergency workers and aviation experts continue to comb debris spread over a wide area for clues and the black box flight recorders are said to have been recovered in good condition.