Mystery Over Who 'Shot Down' Malaysia Plane

Russia appears to be building its case against Ukraine over the crash of a passenger plane, apparently shot down, which killed all 298 people on board.

Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was heading from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur at an altitude of 33,000ft (10,000m) when contact was lost on Thursday afternoon in eastern Ukraine close to the border with Russia.
It came down near the village of Grabovo, Donetsk in an area where Ukrainian forces have been fighting pro-Moscow separatists.

An emergency worker at the scene of the crash

An adviser to the Ukrainian interior ministry said the Boeing 777 was hit by a Buk ground-to-air missile.
Authorities in Kiev said pro-Russian separatists were to blame, as President Petro Poroshenko called it an "act of terrorism".

Glenn Thomas was among the victims of the tragedy

But the Russian defence ministry has reportedly said it picked up radar facility activity from a Ukrainian Buk missile system south of Donetsk on Thursday.
Sky's Katie Stallard said: "That doesn't correlate with the geography. This was a plane flying from west to east, flying over territory that the Ukrainian government would perceive as friendly. Territory that they control.

Flames rise from wreckage of the Malaysia Airlines jet

"It is a slightly counterintuitive suggestion that they would perceive that aircraft as a threat when it is heading away from their friendly airspace and towards the Russian border."
Separatist leader Alexander Borodai said Ukrainian government forces were responsible, and Russian President Vladimir Putin said: "The state over whose territory this occurred bears responsibility."

However, a US official said Washington strongly suspected it was brought down by a surface-to-air missile fired by rebels.
World leaders are demanding an international investigation in the crash.
The Netherlands suffered the biggest loss of life with at least 173 of its citizens dying. Among the other victims were nine Britons.

Flight MH17 taking off at Schiphol Airport in the Netherlands

They included 49-year-old Glenn Thomas, a media officer at the World Health Organisation, who was described as a "wonderful person and a great professional".
Two Newcastle United fans John Alder and Liam Sweeney, who were travelling to see their football team play in New Zealand, also died, according to reports.
The cockpit and one of the turbines were over half a mile apart, and residents said the tail was six miles away, indicating the aircraft most likely broke up before hitting the ground.

The last known location of flight MH17

Many of the bodies strewn across the fields were largely intact – some of them were still strapped into their plane seats. People who live in the area have described seeing bodies falling through the sky.
Pro-Russian separatists said they found one of the "black box" recorders and rescue workers have recovered a second flight recorder.
Among the 283 passengers and 15 crew on board were 44 Malaysians, 27 Australians, 12 Indonesians, four Germans, four Belgians, three Filipinos, one Canadian and one from New Zealand.

Armed Russian separatists inspect the wreckage

The victims included three infants, and the nationalities of 20 passengers have yet to be verified.
Britain has joined the US and other countries in calling for an international probe into the disaster. US President Barack Obama has said it should be "prompt, full, credible and unimpeded".

The wreckage was scattered over a wide area

US Vice-President Joe Biden said the jet appeared to have been deliberately "blown out of the sky".
Sky's Katie Stallard, in Moscow, said Igor Strelkov, the commander of the pro-Russian Donetsk People's Republic, appeared to have boasted about the incident on social media.

A distressed woman waits for information in Kuala Lumpur

In one deleted message recovered by Sky News, he allegedly wrote: "We warned you not to fly over our sky."
Ukraine's security service also released what it claimed was a recording of an intercepted phone call between two Russian military intelligence officers, discussing the downing of the plane.
Malaysia Airlines, still reeling from the loss of flight MH370, has said the route taken by flight MH17 had been declared safe by civil aviation authorities.
:: Malaysia Airlines has set up an emergency line for worried relatives: 00 6 037 884 1234.