An EgyptAir flight with 56 passengers and 10 crew has disappeared on its way from Paris to Cairo, the airline says.

Flight M2804 was traveling from Paris when it lost contact somewhere over the eastern Mediterranean, about 15 km into Egyptian airspace.

It disappeared at 02:30 local time and was at a height of 37 000 feet, EgyptAir says, after initially stating 02:45 CLT.

The company said on Twitter it had "contacted the concerned authorities and bodies and inspection is underway through the rescue teams".

There has been no official explanation so far.

An EgyptAir official told CNN there was no distress call from the plane.

EgyptAir Vice President Ahmed Abdel also revealed that the disappearance from the radar happened around 30 to 40 miles north from the Egyptian coast.

But a company statement later said that contact was lost "about 280 km from the Egyptian seacoast".

A list of passengers by nationality (which does not include all on board) shows the vast majority (30) were Egyptian. There were also 15 French nationals, 2 Iraqis, and one passenger from each of these countries: the UK, Belgium, Sudan, Chad, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Canada, and Algeria.