The human remains so far retrieved from the wreckage of the crashed EgyptAir plane suggest that there was an explosion aboard, an Egyptian forensics official and investigation sources said on Tuesday.

The official based his assessment on the small size of body parts so far recovered from the site in the Mediterranean sea. Investigators had not so far found any traces of explosives that would suggest it was caused by a bomb, the sources said.

"The size of the remains points towards an explosion, the biggest part was the size of a palm. Some of the remains started arriving on Sunday in about 23 bags," the forensics official said.

However, another forensics official said only a tiny number of remains had arrived so far and it was too early to specify whether there had been an explosion aboard. - Reuters