Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 'Shot Down In Ukraine Near Russian Border'

A Malaysia Airlines passenger jet is reported to have been shot down near the Russia - Ukraine border.

Unconfirmed reports from Interfax news agency say the Boeing 777 was shot down at altitude.

Sources say 280 passengers and 15 crew members were onboard the flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.

YouTube footage reportedly showing the aftermath of the incident

It
was reportedly at 32,000ft when it was shot down but it is as yet
unconfirmed whether the aircraft was in Russian or Ukrainian airspace.

A
Russian aviation industry source has told Reuters that the Malaysia
Airlines plane didn't enter Russian airspace at the time it was expected
to, and crashed in Eastern Ukraine.

Anton Gerashchenko, an advisor at Ukraine's interior ministry, told Bloomberg it was Ukrainian rebels who shot down the plane.

Writing on his Facebook page, Gerashenko said the plane was hit by a Buk ground-to-air missile.

In
this June 30, 2010 file photo, a Russian Buk-M2 air defence system is
displayed at a military show in Zhukovsky, outside Moscow

This
afternoon Malaysia Airlines tweeted it had: "lost contact of [sic] of
MH17 from Amsterdam. The last known position was over Ukrainian
airspace. More details to follow."

The flight is understood to have been around four-and-a-half hours into its 11-and-a-half hour journey.

The flight tracker which reportedly shows the flight over Ukraine