MH17 fragments loaded onto railway wagons

The Hague, Nov 17 (IANS/TASS) Fragments of the crashed Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 have been partially loaded onto railway wagons in the Ukrainian town of Torez, the Dutch government has said.

The first fragments have already been taken to Torez from the crash site and loaded onto railway wagons.

Later on, the wreckage will be taken to Kharkov, from where the fragments will be delivered to the Netherlands.

The Dutch security council initiated the operation to recover the remaining fragments of the crashed plane in a bid to reconstruct parts of the Boeing in order to ascertain the cause of the crash.

It will take several days to complete the operation at the crash area.

If the security situation affords, collection of fragments will be continued Monday.

Along with the fragments of the plane, Dutch inspectors recovered human remains and personal belongings, including passports and bank cards.

The human remains and personal belonging will undergo initial forensic study in Kharkov to be later sent to the Netherlands.

The Boeing 777-200 of the Malaysia Airlines en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed July 17 in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk Region, some 60 km from the Russian border.

All the 298 passengers and crew members on board were killed.

The work on removing wreckage of the airplane became possible after representatives of the Netherlands, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic signed a relevant protocol Saturday.

--IANS/TASS

ksk/ab/vt