Malaysia Airlines plane crashes with 295 on board over Ukraine near Russian border

A Ukrainian official said a passenger plane carrying 295 people was shot down on Thursday over a town in the east of the country, and Malaysian Airlines tweeted that it lost contact with one of its flights over Ukrainian airspace. | Malaysian Airlines plane shot down over Ukraine

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak expressed shock over the reported crash of the Malaysian Airlines passenger jet in eastern Ukraine and said that he is launching immediate probe into reported jetliner crash.Malaysia Airlines said on its Twitter feed that it “has lost contact of MH17 from Amsterdam. The last known position was over Ukrainian airspace. More details to follow.”Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko says his country’s armed forces did not shoot at any airborne targets, after reports that a Malaysian Airlines plane went down over Ukraine. Separatist leader Andrei Purgin told The Associated Press that he was certain that Ukrainian troops had shot the plane down but gave no explanation or proof for his statement.

Anton Gerashenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s Interior Minister, said on his Facebook page the plane was flying at an altitude of 10,000 metres (33,000 feet) when it was hit by a missile fired from a Buk launcher. A similar launcher was seen by Associated Press journalists near the eastern Ukrainian town of Snizhne earlier on Thursday.