Malaysian Prime Minister Jajib Razak has stated that Malaysian authorities are determined to find out the cause of Malaysian Airlines (MAS) flight MH17 crash in Eastern Ukraine on July 17.

PM Najib made the statement at a press conference at 4:00 am local time on July 18 at a hotel near the Kuala Lumpur International Airport .

The tragedy site

The MAS has confirmed that its Boeing 777-200 flight MH17 took off from Amsterdam at 12:15 (local time) on July 17 and was supposed to land in Kuala Lumpur at 6.10 am (Malaysian time). The aircraft's flight route was declared safe by the International Civil Aviation Organisation.

The crash took the lives of 298 people on board, who, according to the MAS, include 154 Dutch people, 27 Australians, 28 Malaysians, 12 Indonesians, nine British people, four Germans, four Belgians, three Filipinos, and one Canadian. The nationalities of other 41 victims remained unconfirmed.

The PM said emergency operations centres have been established in relation to the tragedy and rescue teams were sent to Kiev for the search of the victims.

Najib said he has also spoken to the President of Ukraine who pledged that there would be a full, thorough and independent investigation and Malaysian officials would be invited to take part.

Meanwhile, the United Nations Security Council has announced that it will hold an emergency meeting on Ukraine on July 18, following the flight MH17 crash.

Jeffrey Feltman, UN Deputy Secretary General, is expected to brief the council on the case.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for a thorough and transparent international inspection on the cause of the tragedy, while expressing his sympathy to families of the victims.

(Source: VNA)