Possible many more MH17 bodies with wreckage — Australia PM

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A Boeing C-17 of the Australian Air Force stands at the Eindhoven Airbase in The Netherlands. — AFP photo

SYDNEY: Australia’s Prime Minister Tony Abbott said yesterday it was possible that many bodies from the MH17 crash were still lying in the open in Ukraine, as remains were recovered from a morgue train.

All 298 people onboard the Malaysia Airlines jet, including 28 Australian nationals and nine residents, were killed after the aircraft was apparently shot down over eastern Ukraine last week.

“It’s quite possible that many bodies are still out there, in the open in the European summer, subject to interference, and subject to the ravages of heat and animals,” Abbott told a press conference.

The remains of victims were taken by train to the government-held Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on Tuesday, after rebels controlling the crash site finally released them and the plane’s black boxes under intense international pressure.

Dutch experts have said they were only sure 200 bodies had been recovered so far – well short of accounting for all those onboard.

“Based on early inspection of the carriages in Kharkiv, we just don’t know how many bodies we have,” Abbott told reporters in Canberra.

The Australian leader called for a “full recovery search” of the vast crash site, saying such an operation was “necessary if all of the bodies are to be recovered”. — AFP