KIEV, July 20 (RIA Novosti) – Emergency workers have retrieved 27 more bodies from the crash site of the Malaysian airliner that came down Thursday in the east Ukrainian region of Donetsk, according to the country’s Deputy Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman.
Speaking at a press conference, Groysman said 192 bodies and eight body fragments had been loaded earlier in the day onto a refrigerated train stationed in the town of Torez near the crash site.
He said another 27 bodies had been found and “unfortunately, only 20 body fragments, which will be put into special refrigerators and taken to special wagons.”
Volodymyr Groysman, who heads Ukraine’s investigative committee in charge of the air crash probe, said the decision on whether to give the train carrying the remains of Flight MH17 passengers the green light to go to Donetsk city is still pending.
“As of now, we haven’t had an opportunity to give it a go-ahead,” the deputy prime minister told reporters.
Earlier reports from a RIA Novosti correspondent on the ground said the train had left Torez for Donetsk on Sunday. There were a total of 198 bodies on the train, according to monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation (OSCE) in Europe who inspected the train ahead of the departure.
The Malaysia Airlines plane with 298 people on board, including 85 children and 15 crew members, was allegedly shot down Thursday near the town of Torez in Ukraine’s Donetsk region.
Ukrainian government and militia have been trading blame for the alleged downing of the airliner ever since reports suggesting foul play were released. Independence supporters claim they have no missiles capable of shooting down a high-flying plane.
