Emergency flights sent to rescue stranded British tourists diverted away from Sharm el-Sheikh

Planes were forced to turn around mid-air due to 'last minute change in Egyptian government restrictions'

Several flights sent to rescue stranded British holidaymakers in Sharm el-Sheikh have been diverted mid-air due to over-congestion at the Red Sea resort airport.

The UK Government said this morning that a total of 29 flights would fly thousands of British citizens back to the UK from Egypt over the course of the day but it has since been announced that only eight flights will go ahead.

Airlines said they were forced to divert aircraft from Sharm el-Sheikh due to "a last minute change in Egyptian government restrictions".

It came on a day of chaos at Sharm el-Sheikh airport, the UK Government rebuking airlines for sending out inaccurate information to passengers.

Online flight trackers showed a Thomas Cook flight turned around in mid-air over northern Greece on its way to pick up British citizens in Egypt:

Flight MT2706 left Manchester airport earlier today but is now on its way back to the UK. It was one of three Thomas Cook flights that were not given permission to land in Sharm el-Sheikh.

The airline told The Independent that it was only given one of its planned four slots to fly out of Sharm el-Sheik to the UK on Friday but will conduct a "double drop" flight - allowing some passengers to get off in Birmingham while flying the rest to East Midlands airport, landing in Nottingham at 23.15.

Other flights, including two Thomson Airways aircraft, are believed to have been diverted to Cyprus following reports of over-capacity at Sharm el-Sheikh airport.

A statement from the company said: "Thomson Airways can now confirm that due to a last minute change in Egyptian government restrictions we can only operate two flights from Sharm el Sheikh to the UK today. Customers travelling on TOM733 to Glasgow and TOM397 to Gatwick are expected to depart later today.

"We continue to work with the UK Government to try and finalise our flying programme for the weekend and we will update accordingly when further information becomes available."

Thomas Cook said it had cancelled all flights and holidays up to next Thursday and said it was making arrangements to ensure customers stranded in Sharm el-Sheikh will be able to stay in their accommodation free of charge.

Passengers who are able to fly home are only allowed to bring cabin luggage due to suspicions from authorities that a bomb was planted in hold luggage of the Russian plane that crashed over the Sinai last week, killing all 224 people on board.

It comes after President Putin agreed to suspend all flights to Egypt as evidence increasingly suggests that an Isis bomb brought down the Russian plane that crashed over the Sinai last week.

The Russian president acted after the head of the country’s security service said all flights to the north African country should be grounded until the cause of the crash that killed all 224 people on board is known.