Cash and jewellery is being stolen from victims of the Malaysian plane crash, Ukrainian politicians claim.
The missile strike which brought down the MH17 flight left naked bodies strewn across fields surrounded by hundreds of possessions including children’s books, playing cards, slippers, letters and old vinyl records.
But tonight it has been claimed that looters have descended on the distressing scene, stealing valuable goods from the 298 passengers and crew, who all died in the blast.
Anton Gerashchenko, an advisor to the Kiev government, said: ‘I have received information that terrorist death-hunters were collecting not only cash and jewellery of the crashed Boeing dead passengers but also the credit cards of the victims.
Raids: Looters have been raiding the personal belongings and luggage of MH17 passengers strewn across the crash site in eastern Ukraine, officials claim
Disturbing: Dead bodies were found mixed in with debris, with some corpses having remained almost intact. Ukraine has appealed for respect for the 298 dead
Blast: Experts claim the aircraft will have exploded in the air after being hit by a shrapnel-based missile which scattered the plane and its passengers across the fields
Search: Teams are now wading through pieces of wreckage of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in Shaktarsk to retrieve remains and belongings
‘Currently, they might as well try to use them in Ukraine or pass them on to Russia.
‘My humble request to the relatives of the victims to freeze their credit cards, so that they won’t loose their assets to terrorists.’
Speculation over the source of the missile, which remains unconfirmed, has sparked a propaganda battle between both sides of the Ukraine-Russia crisis.
Officials in Kiev have made repeated statements linking the attack to pro-Russian separatists.
Tonight, Downing Street supported the claims with a statement to say it appears ‘increasingly likely that MH-17 was shot down by a separatist missile’ fired from near Torez, an area controlled by pro-Russian rebels.
The Malaysian Airlines flight, a Boeing 777, was brought down over eastern Ukraine on Thursday as it flew from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, with the loss of everyone on board.
Makeshift white flags have been placed to mark where bodies lay in corn fields and among the debris.
Others, stripped bare by the force of the crash, had been covered by polythene sheeting weighed down by stones, one marked with a flower in remembrance.
The huge crash site still smelt of jet fuel on Friday, with personal belongings scattered far and wide.
Distressing scenes: Playing cards and children’s drawing books lie among the flowers in Ukraine’s eastern countryside after the MH17 was hit by an SA-11
Plea: An advisor to Kiev’s government has urged grieving relatives to cancel their loved ones’ credit cards as looters snatch items from the wreckage
A pro-Russian militant passes by the wreckage of MH17, which crash on Thursday afternoon after taking off from Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam
Many belongings were completely undamaged, with T-shirts, suitcase
Aircraft and helicopter parts as well as dogs and pigeons were among the items being carried on the downed plane, according to the manifest
They included a pink children’s book, stockers, Children’s playing cards, slippers, cologne and a bicycle, seemingly undamaged, according to The New York Times.
Aircraft and helicopter parts as well as dogs and pigeons were among the items being carried on the downed plane, according to the manifest.
As well as the dogs, the manifest lists other live birds as well as textiles, diplomatic mail and freshcut flowers.
The paperwork looks all in order, with the items signed for and instructions about the required temperature in which the goods should be stored.
The flight number is marked clearly on the top of each page as well as the date of July 17 and a registration number. Point of loading is marked as Schiphol airport in Amsterdam, with the unloading point listed as Kuala Lumpur.
‘The plane broke up in the air, and the parts and human bodies are lying within a three kilometre area,’ said a post by Vsevolod Petrovsky after visiting the scene.
Emergency workers, police officers and even coal miners spread out across the sunflower fields and villages of eastern Ukraine, searching the wreckage of MH17
Out of the blue: A Ukrainian covers a body with a plastic sheet in a field. Malaysia’s prime minister said there was no distress call before the plane went down and that the flight route was declared safe by the International Civil Aviation Organisation
All hand on deck: Coal miners help with the search effort at the crash site near the village of Rozsypne in eastern Ukraine
Disturbing: A woman walks past a body covered with a plastic sheet in a sunflower field near the site of a crashed Malaysia Airlines passenger plane near the village of Rozsypne
‘One body broke a hole in the thin roof of summer terrace in a private house.
‘I got out of the car and immediately saw the naked body of a woman, covered by some leaves.
‘There were many bodies without clothes around. Probably, their clothing was torn away after the loss of pressurization. Horrible.
‘I go further and see a hill made of the cockpit parts. The area is lit. The pilot’s body is in this seat, with seat belt fastened, he is dressed in his clothes.
‘Among the plane parts there were many parcels. Letters tied with a rope, books, old vinyl records, somebody’s shoes.
‘Children’s caps with the Dutch national flag colours. Amazingly, almost all of these things are not destroyed.
‘There was no fire in this part of the plane. The fire was in the back part which is lying not far from Grabovo village.’
A local farmer said: ‘I was herding my cows and heard a buzzing noise.
‘I lay on the ground and thinking only that it would not hit me and my cows. Then I looked and saw that something turns sharply and two big wings were flying. Bang. And something explodes. It came from eastern side, from the side of Sokholikha mountain.’
David Cameron has insisted that those responsible for the apparent shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 must be ‘brought to account’ amid deepening tensions with Russia.
The Prime Minister described the catastrophe, in which nine Britons died, as an ‘absolutely appalling, shocking, horrific incident’ that ‘cannot be allowed to stand’.
The response came as the United Nations Security Council approved a statement calling for a ‘full, thorough and independent international investigation’ into the crash.
The Ukrainian government has blamed rebels using Russian-supplied surface-to-air missiles for the tragedy, while the Kremlin has accused Kiev of failing to agree a ceasefire.
Read more: DailyMail
