Malaysia Airlines said via its Twitter feed: "Malaysia Airlines has lost contact of MH17 from Amsterdam. The last known position was over Ukrainian airspace. More details to follow."
The Ukrainian official Anton Gerashchenko said 280 passengers and 15 crew were on board with a total of 295 people. MH17 was travelling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, apparently crashed near the town of Snizhe, according to a report from Interfax news agency which could not immediately be confirmed. Other reports suggested it had crashed close to the nearby town of Torez.
#mh17