The international team at the crash site of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 have been unable to continue their search on Monday because of heavy fighting in the area.

The 100-strong team of Dutch, Australian and Malaysian forensic experts are at the site where the Boeing 777 came down, killing all 298 people on board, including 196 Dutch.

However, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe asked them to wait until ‘a further safety analysis has been carried out’ because of heavy fighting between the Ukrainian army and the pro-Russian rebels, according to Dutch media.

Coffins

Later on Monday afternoon, a military plane will land at Eindhoven airport carrying coffins containing the human remains found by the team on Friday and Saturday.

The coffins will be taken in a procession of hearses to Hilversum where a team of Dutch experts are carrying out the process of identification.