Scanning and tagging of MH17 victims expected to be completed by Friday

The scanning and tagging process of the remains of Malaysia Airlines (MAS) flight MH17 victims is expected to be completed on Friday.

National Security Council (MKN) Principal Assistant Secretary Left Col Mohd Sakri Hussain said forensic experts from Malaysia, Netherlands and Australia have screened the bodies in more than two refrigerated coaches on Wednesday.

There are four refrigerated coaches that carried 282 bodies of the flight MH17 victims from Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, near the Russian border to Kharkiv for tagging before being flown out to Eindhoven, the Netherlands, he told Bernama here Wednesday.

The four refrigerated coaches were 'shipped' Tuesday to the Ukraine city of Kharkiv on refrigerated train coaches, and then flown to Eindhoven from an airport in Kharkiv.

He said the remaining bodies are expected to be scanned and tagged by Friday.

On Wednesday, 56 bodies were flown to the Netherlands for disaster victim identification.

The MAS flight, MH17, was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it went down in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, near the Russian border last Thursday.

The Boeing 777-200 aircraft which was carrying 298 people - 283 passengers and 15 crew - was believed to have been shot down, but until today no one has claimed responsibility for the heinous act.