World

Investigators arrive at crash site

July 18, 2014 5:10 pm

International investigators have arrived at the crash site of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, after rebels in eastern Ukraine allowed them access.

About 30 monitors are at the village of Grabovo where the plane, carrying 298 people, came down early on Friday.

Each side in Ukraine’s civil conflict has accused the other of shooting the jet down with a missile.

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A New Zealand woman living in Australia and a British national living in New Zealand were also on the flight.

Earlier the Ukrainian government said it had evidence three people were operating the missile launcher that brought down MH17 over rebel-held territory near the Russian border.

Officials in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, said two men had been captured near the border on the Ukrainian side, one of whom had paperwork indicating he was a missile specialist, the ABC reports.

Calls by the Russian and American presidents for a ceasefire in Ukraine’s east have been rejected by Alexander Borodai, prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic.