Just 23 victims of Malaysia flight identified so far

The Dutch-led forensic team working on the remains of the passengers of Malaysia Airlines flight 17 has identified 23 victims so far.

Justice Ministry spokesman Jean Fransman said those include 18 Dutch, two Malaysians, a Canadian, a German, and a Briton. All their families have been notified.

Flight 17 was shot down last month over eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 aboard. Pro-Russian rebels have publicly denied downing the plane but one top rebel has said the insurgents were involved.

In all, 228 coffins have been brought to the Netherlands but it is not known how many victims that represents. The forensic experts at a military base in Hilversum are using DNA samples and dental records in a process expected to take months.

The head of the forensic team, Arie de Bruyn, said the 228 coffins “sometimes contained remains of more than one or two people”. He said remains have been sorted into 703 groups.

“As you can see right away, that’s many more than the victims who were on the plane,” he said.

Around 176 bodies are more or less intact, leaving 527 sets of partial remains, he said. On Wednesday, the Dutch prime minister called off further attempts to recover remains from the crash area, citing danger to the recovery workers from nearby fighting between the rebels and Ukrainian forces.

Meanwhile, at least three civilians have been killed and another 10 wounded in shelling of the main rebel stronghold Donetsk in eastern Ukraine — besieged by government forces. Local residents said a rebel rocket launcher recently seen in the area may have been the target.

Resident Marina Barsuk, 53, said she and other residents believed the shelling came from the Ukrainian side. Government forces and the rebels use the same Soviet-made Grad launchers, which fire unguided rockets at a distance of up to 19km.