WORLD / EUROPE
Ukraine completes search operation at MH17 crash site
Published: Jul 22, 2014 02:11 PM Updated: Jul 22, 2014 02:13 PM

Search operations have ended at the site of the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 crash in Donetsk region, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman said in Kiev Monday.

"(A total of) 282 bodies and 87 fragments that belonged to the other 16 bodies of the innocent victims were found at the site," Groysman told reporters during a media conference.

He said the bodies and remains of the victims have been placed inside refrigerated cars and will be taken to eastern city of Kharkov later in the day for examination.

Groysman added that insurgents in Donetsk region, who allegedly have seized the black boxes of the plane, agreed to transfer the flight data recorders to experts from the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

Earlier in the day, a team of 31 international experts arrived in Kharkov to help with the investigation of the incident.

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, with 298 people aboard, crashed Thursday near Grabovo village in eastern Ukraine. No one survived.