A plane travelling from Paris to Cairo that disappeared from radar with 66 people on board was carrying passengers from Egypt, France, Belgium, Algeria, Sudan, Chad, Portugal, Canada, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and a Briton, EgyptAir has said.

The EgyptAir plane was 10 miles into Egyptian airspace when it disappeared at 2.30am Cairo time (1.30am BST) after taking off three and a half hours earlier from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport.

The Egyptian armed forces were preparing for an inspection and rescue effort and the Greek authorities also joined the search effort.

EgyptAir tweeted the nationalities of the passengers and confirmed that there were 30 Egyptians on board, 15 French passengers, two Iraqis, and one passenger from Britain, Sudan, Chad, Portugal, Algeria, Canada, Belgium, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

Flight MS804 left Charles De Gaulle Airport at 11.09pm Central European Summer Time (10.09pm BST).

The airline initially said said there were 59 passengers on board but later said there were 56, including one child and two babies.

Three EgyptAir security personnel were on board as well as seven cabin crew members.

Ahram, Egypt's state-run newspaper, quoted an airport official saying that the pilot had not sent a distress signal before it disappeared early on Thursday.

The last contact with the plane was 10 minutes before it vanished, he was quoted as saying.

The airline also confirmed that it was flying over the Mediterranean Sea about 280km from the Egyptian coast when it disappeared.

It said it was hosting passengers' families near Cairo Airport and was providing doctors and translators.

The airline's official Twitter account posted a message saying: "An informed source at EGYPTAIR stated that Flight no MS804,which departed Paris at 23:09 (CEST), heading to Cairo has disappeared from radar."

The airline originally tweeted that the plane lost contact with radar at 2.45am Cairo time but has now confirmed that it lost contact at 2.30am (1.30am BST) and was due to land at 3.15am Cairo time (2.15am BST).

The Airbus A320 was built in 2003 and was flying at 37,000 feet, the airline said on Twitter.

The airline tweeted: "EGYPTAIR has contacted the concerned authorities and bodies and inspection is underway through the rescue teams."

It tweeted that the pilot had logged 6275 flying hours, including 2101 hours on the A320, and the co-pilot had logged 2766 hours.

In March, a domestic EgyptAir flight with 72 passengers on board had to make an emergency diversion to Larnaca, Cyprus, after an alleged hijacking.

In October 2015, 224 people were killed when a Russian aircraft crashed over Egypt's Sinai Peninsula minutes after it took off from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

The airline has also provided free contact numbers for families concerned for relatives. From outside of Egypt, anyone concerned should call + 202 25989320.

Greek authorities have joined the search for the jet by deploying two aircraft, a C-130 military plane and one early warning aircraft, the Hellenic National Defence General Staff said.

It also said a frigate was heading to the area and helicopters were on standby on the southern island of Karpathos for potential rescue or recovery operations.

Airbus' verified Twitter account said: "We are aware of media reports. At this time we have no further details, but we will provide further information when available."

Ahmed Adel, vice chairman of EgyptAir's parent company, told CNN the plane had "no snags" arriving in Paris or later when it departed for Cairo.

He said there was no special cargo on the flight and no notification to the captain of any dangerous goods.

He also confirmed that there had not been a distress call. He said: "We did not confirm if there was a distress call. There is no distress call as we speak right now."

He added: "It just lost contact and we lost it on the radar of the air traffic controllers."

An emergency response room has been set up at the Integrated Operations Control Centre in EgyptAir at Cairo airport.