All 298 people on board a Malaysia Airlines plane were killed yesterday as the aircraft crashed over war-torn eastern Ukraine near the Russian border.
The aircraft, Boeing 777 was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur carrying 283 passengers and 15 crew. It came down near the city of Donetsk, the stronghold of pro-Russian rebels.
Giving a preliminary breakdown of the passenger's nationalities, Malaysian Airlines Vice president Huib Gorter confirmed the presence of 154 Dutch nationals and 27 Australians. In addition, 23 others were from Malaysia, 11 were Indonesian.
Passengers from other countries include Britain and Germany. Around 50 passengers remained unidentified. There is no confirmation about the presence of Indians on board so far. Malaysian Airlines confirmed that it had lost contact with Flight MH17 at approximately 50km from the Russia-Ukraine border.
The plane was reportedly shot down by terrorists over war-torn eastern Ukraine near the Russian border. Ukrainian officials have accused pro-Russia rebels of being responsible for shooting down the plane.
But the Ukraine separatist group blames the country's Air Force for the incident. An advisor to the Ukrainain Interior Minister, Anton Herashchenko, said that Malaysia Airlines Boeing-777 was shot down by terrorists operating a Buk surface-to-air missile system.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in a statement said that the country's Armed Forces did not fire at any targets in the sky and termed it a terrorist act. Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk has also ordered a probe into the incident.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin has blamed Ukraine for the crash. He expressed deep condolences to Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak over the crash.
Talking to reporters, Malaysian Prime Minister said that he has dispatched a team of investigators to Ukraine to try and uncover what happened to flight MH17. US President Barack Obama described the incident as a terrible tragedy. He offered all possible assistance in the probe.
World leaders including UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon quickly called for a full international investigation of the disaster.
Teams from the emergency services have reached the scene. Workers at the crash site were trying to find the black box.
