MH17 disaster monitors confirm train contained bags with frozen bodies

Warning this article contains images that some may find distressing

European observers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) verified that the train stationed in Torez, a town 15 km (9 miles) from the scene of the Malaysian airliner crash in eastern Ukraine, contained bags with frozen bodies.

A train stationed in Torez. Credit: Reuters

The monitors were accompanied by armed rebels and were not let inside the carriages, but took photographs of the dozens of bags inside.

OSCE monitors. Credit: Reuters
OSCE monitors. Credit: Reuters

The observer said he did not know where the bodies were being taken next or whether there were more to come.

A railway worker told Reuters earlier that the bodies would be sent south-west to an undisclosed location.

OSCE monitors. Credit: Reuters
Monitors take pictures of the body bags. Credit: Reuters

After lying there for two days in the summer heat, by Sunday the bodies had been removed from a large swathe of the crash site, leaving only bloodstained military stretchers along the side of the road.

The train stationed in Torez. Credit: Reuters