ISIS attack on Sharm El Sheikh in 2015 that killed 224 has turned the Egyptian resort into a ghost town surrounded by a ring of steel
EGYPTIAN resort Sharm El Sheikh, the once bustling holiday paradise that attracted thousands of Brits a year, now looks like a ghost town.
The Red Sea resort is surrounded by a ring of steel after a suspected ISIS terror attack in 2015 killed all 224 people on board a passenger jet.
SunOnline has a man on the ground to investigate just how safe the once-thriving holiday spot is now.
Some Brits living in Sharm El Sheikh are calling on the Foreign Office to scrap the flight ban and allow UK tourists to return to the resort.
They insist the resort, filled with abandoned beaches, half-empty hotels and struggling businesses, is now “safer than London” after security was beefed up at the airport.
The British government currently advises against all travel to Sharm El Sheikh by plane since an Egypt Air jet fell from the sky killing 224 people in 2015.
Russia and Western countries have long said that they believe the flight was brought down by a bomb smuggled on board.
But Egypt has so far publicly said it has not found any evidence of foul play.
The fatal crash caused countries including the UK to suspend flights to Sharm El Sheikh airport amid fears that lax security at the terminal might put British lives at risk.
The move signalled another nail in the coffin for Egypt’s struggling tourism industry, which has already taken a hammering since the 2011 uprising against former dictator Hosni Mubarak.
Two years on and Sharm El Sheikh - dubbed ‘Fortress Sharm’ by locals – is surrounded by a ring of steel.
Police officers carrying weapons paid for by US military aid check every vehicle entering and leaving the resort while cops check IDs and bags at all entry and exit points to the city’s tourist areas.
The stringent security measures and spotless streets seem like the perfect holiday hotspot but still British tourists stay away.
The empty streets and abandoned beaches of Sharm El Sheikh stand in stark contrast to the resort which was packed in its hey-day.
At its peak, Sharm el-Sheikh was the most popular tourist resort in Egypt and a keystone for UK tour companies.