In total, 840 Dutch police officers are involved in the investigation into the crash of Malaysia Airways flight MH17, of whom all but 90 are in the Netherlands, Nos television says on Friday afternoon.

The investigation into the crash is the biggest criminal probe ever mounted in the Netherlands.

Many of the police officers are involved with the families of the victims while a large number are also tied up in the identification of the bodies, national police chief Ruud Bik told the broadcaster.

The involvement of so many police officers in the plane crash is not having an impact on other police work, Bik said. ‘We are a big organisation and we can absorb the workload,’ he said.

Bik did not rule out sending more police officers to help out at the crash site itself in Ukraine.

Crash site

Officials in charge of identifying the 298 victims of the crash said on Friday afternoon a second person had been formally identified.

Members of the international team reached the crash site on Friday to start searching for possessions and human remains following days of delays because of fighting between pro-Russian rebels and the Ukrainian army.

By Sunday the team should be at full strength and will remain in the area rather than returning to Donetsk, which is some 100 kilometres north of the crash site.

DNA

Meanwhile, ‘dna material’ and some of the victims’ possessions were handed over to the Dutch experts by the rebels in Donetsk on Thursday, although it is not clear what the ‘dna material’ consists of.

The team was given the 25 samples at a mortuary in Donetsk as well as the possessions of 27 victims, Dutch media report. However, officials declined to give further details.

Donetsk is in the hands of pro-Russian separatists who also control large parts of the crash site and and are thought to have brought down the plane with a missile.