The remains of the Russian A321.

On Tuesday Russia confirmed that a bomb took down a Russian jet shortly after takeoff above the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt just over two weeks ago, killing all 224 passengers on board.

Alexander Bortnikov, the head of Russia’s Federal Security Service said “according to our experts, a homemade explosive device equivalent to one kilogram of TNT went off onboard, which caused the plane to break up in the air, which explains why the fuselage was scattered over such a large territory. I can certainly say that this was a terrorist act.”

Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) claimed responsibility for the attack by releasing written, audio and video statements online. ISIS said they brought the plane down in retaliation for Russia’s deployment of its military in Syria.

Putin responded to the news by declaring the incident as one of the bloodiest acts in modern Russian history whilst ordering the Russian air force to intensify its air strikes in Syria and offering $50 million for any information leading to the capture of the people responsible for the attack.

The Russian President said “there’s no statute of limitations for this, we need to know all of their names”. “We’re going to look for them everywhere wherever they are hiding. We will find them in any place on Earth and punish them.”

The majority of tourist flights to the Egyptian region have been suspended since the crash due to security concerns that a member of airport staff may have been able to plant the bomb onboard.