Sudarsan Pattnaik pays tribute to MH17 victims

Noted sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik Friday paid tribute to the passengers and crew members of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 that crashed in Ukraine, by creating a sand sculpture in Odisha.

Pattnaik said he created an image of the Malaysian jetliner and a missile on the beach of his home town Puri, 56 km from here, using about six tonnes of sand.

A large number of students and tourists visited the sculpture and placed floral tributes near it, 37-year-old Pattnaik told IANS.

Flight MH17, a Boeing 777, crashed in the conflict-hit Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur Thursday afternoon, killing all 283 passengers and 15 crew members on board.