Star Comment: Move aims to protect the tourists

This is the nightmare scenario, and it is to stop just this sort of thing happening that air passengers and their luggage are subject to what are supposed to be rigorous checks.

Did Lockerbie teach us nothing?

Whether or not these fears are realised by the outcome of the continuing investigation, there will be immense damage to the tourism industry in Egypt.

It is a reasonable precaution on the part of the Government to suspend or delay flights to and from the resort of Sharm el-Sheikh until we can be assured that levels of security are in place which will guarantee, so far as these things can ever be possible, that British tourists will not be at risk.

The Egyptians are infuriated. They can see that this move will hit the Egyptian tourist economy and destroy Egyptian jobs in the tourism sector, in the same way that Tunisia's tourist industry has been devastated as a consequence of terrorist attacks on Western holidaymakers.

This would delight Islamic State and any number of other terrorist groups. Anything that weakens the countries in which they are seeking to spread their influence in North Africa and the Middle East plays into their hands.

It is bound to be suggested that the British are handing a victory for the terrorists. But holidaymakers are not members of the Armed Forces for whom putting themselves in danger is part of the deal. Once you put in their minds the notion that they may be blown up on the flight back, peace of mind is lost, and if you go on holiday and worry about your safety then it is not much of a holiday.

Thousands of British tourists are now stranded in Sharm amid an atmosphere of confusion. Among them is Helen Yates, of Telford. She says nobody is telling them anything.

Whatever the findings of the air accident investigation, holidaymakers are going to think twice about destination Egypt. It is another to be crossed off the list as the holidaymakers' world steadily shrinks.