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BOEING 777 CRASH IN DONBASS

247 bodies retrieved from Malaysian Boeing crash site in eastern Ukraine

All the bodies are now kept in refrigerators at a railway station in the town of Torez

© ITAR-TASS/Zurab Dzhvakhadze

MOSCOW, July 21 /ITAR-TASS/. Rescue teams have found the bodies of 247 out of 298 victims of the Malaysian Boeing-777 crash in eastern Ukraine, Sergei Kavtaradze, an official representative of the prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and member of the DPR Security Council, said on Sunday.

“All the bodies are now kept in refrigerators at a railway station in the town of Torez and will stay there until the emergencies ministry and international experts decide where they would be taken to. So far, it is supposed they the bodies will be taken to Mariupol,” he told the Russian News Service.

He reassured that the authorities of the Donetsk Republic were taking measures to ensure security of observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and four Ukrainian experts working at the crash site and were ready to offer all-round assistance to international aviation experts. As of yet, international experts have not reached the site.

“We will welcome experts and will ensure their security and maximum access to the entire crash area,” Kavtaradze pledged.

He also said that flight recorders from the Malaysian Boeing had presumably been found on Sunday. “The final conclusion is up to experts from the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) who, I hope, will soon arrive here. We have been waiting from experts from the Netherlands, Germany, the United States, Great Britain and Malaysia for the fourth day,” he said.

A Boeing-777 of the Malaysian Airlines en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed in July 17 in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk Region 60 km from the Russian border, in the zone of combat operation between the Donetsk self-defence forces and the Ukrainian army. All the passengers and crewmembers onboard the plane - 298 people - died. Travelling aboard the plane were citizens of ten countries, including 193 Dutchmen, 27 Australian citizens and 10 British nationals.

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