1.17:34: BBC News UpdatesA map of the reported crash site in eastern Ukraine:

2.17:33: According to a Reuters reporter at the scene, broken pieces of wing marked with Malaysia Airlines' red and blue - similar to those pictured below - have been seen among the wreckage.

3.17:32: The BBC's Oleg Boldyrev in Moscow says the rebels do not have out-dated equipment. What they have equals or maybe surpasses the Ukrainian government's capabilities. He says some reports say the rebels even have fighter planes reportedly flown from Crimea and that possibility should not be excluded.

4.17:31: Russian news agency RIA Novosti is also reporting that scores of bodies in Donetsk Region have been found strewn on the ground next to the plane wreckage.

5.Reuters News Agency tweets: #BREAKING: Eastern Ukraine separatist leader Alexander Borodai says airliner shot down by

Ukrainian gov. forces, Kiev denied involvement

6.17:30: The Malaysia Airlines plane could have been shot down, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko says in a statement. "This is a third such tragic event in recent days, when Ukrainian military An-26 and Su-25 aircraft have been shot down from Russian territory, " the statement says. "The Ukrainian armed forces did not attempt to shoot down targets in the air."

7.Flight tracking site Flightradar24tweets: Last positions of #MH17 directly from Flightradar24 database. Signal was lost around 13:21 UTC

at 33,000 feet.

8.17:28: According to Reuters, there are dozens of bodies scattered around the wreckage of the jet. The agency quotes an emergencies services rescue worker as saying at least 100 bodies had so far been found at the scene, and that debris from the wreckage was scattered across an area up to about 15 km (nine miles) in diameter.

9.17:26: Pro-Russia separatists in Donetsk have denied bringing down the aircraft, according to Interfax. "The plane was shot down by the Ukrainian side. We simply have no air defence systems of this kind," separatist spokesman Sergey Kavtaradze told the agency.

10.17:20: Sources says the aircraft was a Boeing 777, similar to this one photographed earlier this year:

11.Jonathan Beale Defence correspondent, BBC News The only other possibility is for an aircraft at that height to be downed by a fighter carrying air-to-air

missiles. The US will have access to satellite imagery that should be able to identify ultra-violet plumes if a long-range surface-to-air missile was fired.

12.Jonathan Beale Defence correspondent, BBC News

A defence expert has told the BBC that shooting down a plane at 10,000 metres (9.7 miles) would have required a long-range surface-to-air missile - possibly guided by radar. That suggests it is unlikely it could have been downed by a portable air defence missile, or Manpad, which has a much shorter range.

13.17:15: Interfax news agency quotes the Ukrainian presidential press service as saying that the Ukrainian armed forces were not involved in the Malaysian passenger plane "being brought down".

14.17:14: A Reuters reporter has reached the scene and has described seeing burning wreckage of the airplane, with bodies on the ground, the agency reports.

15.Mohd Najib Tun Razak, Malaysian prime minister tweets: I am shocked by reports that an MH plane crashed. We are launching an immediate investigation.

16.17:09: A number of military planes have been shot down by missiles in recent weeks over eastern Ukraine, where pro-Russian separatist rebels have been fighting government forces.

17.17:08: BBC correspondent Oleg Boldyrev in Moscow says unconfirmed reports suggest people have seen wreckage on the ground. He adds that any investigation into what could have happened would be a "nightmare" for the authorities, given the tensions in the area.

18.17:07: US stocks have fallen sharply amid reports of the latest Malaysia Airlines flight incident, according to AFP.

19.Zeke Miller, Political reporter at Time Magazine tweets: WH: Obama has been briefed on reports of the plane

20.17:06: If the deaths on board this flight are confirmed, it would be the second tragedy to strike Malaysia Airlines this year after the disappearance of Flight MH370 in March with 227 passengers and 12 members of crew on board - one of the greatest aviation mysteries of all time.

21.17:05: The Ukrainian prime minister has reportedly launched an investigation into what he calls the "airplane catastrophe",according to Reuters.

22.17:02: The Interfax-Ukraine news agency has quoted a Ukrainian Interior Ministry as saying he believes all 295 passengers on board have been killed.

23.16:59: This map shows where contact was apparently lost with flight MH17 between Amsterdam and Kuala Lumpur:

24.16:54: The UK Foreign Office says it is aware of the reports and is "urgently working to establish what has happened".

25.Boeing Airplanes tweets: We are aware of reports on MH17. We're gathering more information.

26.16:50: The Associated Press says one of its journalists saw a similar launcher near the eastern Ukrainian town of Snizhe earlier on Thursday.

27.16:50: An advisor to the Ukrainian interior minister, Anton Gerashenko, says the plane was flying at an altitude of 10,000 metres (33,000 feet) when it was "hit by a missile fired from a Buk launcher", in a post on his Facebook page, according to the Associated Press.

28.16:42: Aviation expert Chris Yates says the plane would have been full, if reports that it was carrying 295 passengers are correct. He says the plane would have been flying at a height of some six miles (9.7km).29.16:39:BREAKING NEWS Malaysia Airlines tweets it has lost contact with flight MH17 from Amsterdam. "The last known position was over Ukrainian airspace," it says. "More details to follow."

30.16:36: The BBC's Daniel Sandford in Moscow says that the area in which the plane is reported to have come down is rightin the centre of the area controlled by anti-Kiev rebels - although of course details are still coming in.

31.16:36: Again according to the Interfax agency only, Anton Herashchenko an adviser to the Ukrainian deputy interior minister has apparently confirmed the crash.

32.16:34: The Interfax news agency reported 295 people - 280 passengers and 15 crew members - were on board the flight, en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.

33.16:31: The Boeing 777 plane was flying in an international air corridor over eastern Ukraine when it crashed, the Russian news agency reported.

34.16:27: The crash has reportedly happened on the Ukrainian side of the Russia - Ukraine border, scene of tension betweenthe two countries.

35.16:24: Reports suggest a passenger plane has crashed in eastern Ukraine. The early reports come from an "aviation source" who was quoted by the privately-owned Russian Interfax news agency

17:38: If it was a missile that brought the aircraft down, it would have to be a long range one as opposed to a portable system, aviation analyst Chris Yates tells BBC Radio 4's PM programme.36. Air transport editor for Flight International, David Kaminski tweets: Point of loss of #MH17 appears to coincide with airspace boundary between Kiev and Dnipropetrovsk flightinformation regions.18:05: Emergency services officials are surveying the crash site:

1.18:03:

Flight MH17 took off from Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport at 12:14 local time. This AFP image was reportedly taken atthe time.

2.Carl Boylin in Leeds, UK emails: All aircraft should be rerouted in the short term to avoid any further loss of life

3.17:59: German airline Lufthansa says it has decided to avoid eastern Ukrainian air space with immediate effect, Reuters reports.

4.17:58: Another photograph from the crash site, taken by Reuters:

5.17:57: "The portable air defence systems which we have, they work at a maximum of three to four thousand metres. Therefore, it is possible to say virtually before the start of the investigation that the Ukrainian armed forces destroyed this," separatist spokesman Sergey Kavtaradze says.

6.17:57: A spokesman for pro-Russian separatists in the Donetsk region told Russia's Rossiya TV that they were not capable of bringing down a commercial airliner flying at 10,000 metres.

7.17:56: Reuters has this photograph of a Ukrainian emergencies ministry worker at the crash site:

8.Reuters news agency tweets: The site of a Malaysia Airlines plane crash in the settlement of Grabovo in Donetsk region:

http://bit.ly/1eP5C4X

9.17:53: Malaysia's Defence Minister Hishamuddin Hussein, who dealt with the disappearance of MH370 in March in his capacity as acting transport minister, has appealed for calm on Twitter, saying he is working with the foreign, transport and prime minister on the issue - via BBC Monitoring

10.17:52: A statement from Virgin Airlines says it "will be re-routing a small number of our flights this evening". It says it is closely monitoring the situation.

11.17:51: Former UK ambassador to Russia Sir Tony Brenton tells the BBC if the plane has been shot down it has "quite profound political implications". He says sanctions and "world condemnation" of the pro-Russia rebels could follow if it turns out they have shot down the plane.

12.17:50: Malaysia Airlines has released a statement saying it received notification from Ukrainian air traffic control that it had lost contact with flight MH17 at 1415 GMT at 30km from Tamak waypoint, approximately 50km (31 miles) from the Russia-Ukraine border.

13.17:46: AFP quotes the Kremlin as saying that Mr Putin "informed [President Obama] about an air-traffic controllers' report that came just before their phone conversation that a Malaysian plane crashed in Ukraine".

14.17:45: US President Barack Obama has spoken via telephone to Russian President Vladimir Putin about the airplane crash, Reuters reports. The call had already been pre-planned on the situation in Ukraine, it adds.

15.17:43: Novorossiya, one of several major pro-Russia separatist accounts on Twitter, says in a tweet (in Russian) that the Ukrainian air force brought down the Malaysia Airlines aircraft, our colleagues at BBC Monitoring report.

16.Mike Boxall in Cambridge, UK emails: Why have international airlines continued to fly across this area of eastern Ukraine during this time

of conflict? We have been reading reports of the increasing loss of military aircraft in this area, surely the airlines have a standard of customer care which should preclude overflying areas of conflict? 17.

18.Air transport editor for Flight International, David Kaminski tweets: Point of loss of #MH17 appears to coincide with airspace boundary between Kiev and

Dnipropetrovsk flight information regions.

19.17:38: If it was a missile that brought the aircraft down, it would have to be a long range one as opposed to a portable system, aviation analyst Chris Yates tells BBC Radio 4's PM programme.

20.17:34: A map of the reported crash site in eastern Ukraine:

1.Russian News Agency RIA Novostitweets: Putin expresses his "sincere condolences" to Malaysian PM on MH17 aircraft crash

2.18:25: Graphic images from the crash site, showing debris and bodies, are currently being broadcast by the privately-owned pro-Kremlin rolling Russian news channel LifeNews, our colleagues at BBC Monitoring report.

3.18:24: The Interfax news agency quotes Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko as saying the incident was a "terrorist act",

Reuters reports.

4.18:20: The UK department of transport issues a statement stating: "Flights already airborne are being routed around the area by air traffic control in the region." Pilots around the world are being advised to plan routes that avoid the area,it adds.

5.18:19: Malaysia Airlines is expected to hold a press conference on the incident at 04:00 local time (21:00 BST), the BBC understands.

6.18:16: The plane went down near the village of Grabovo, which is currently under the control of armed pro-Russian separatists. The region has been the scene of severe fighting between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatist rebels in recent days, AP reports.

7.18:16: As well as Lufthansa, Russian airliner Transaero has also announced it is avoiding Ukrainian airspace for all future flights following the Malaysia airlines crash, Reuters reports.

8.Reuters tweets: #BREAKING: Air France says has decided to avoid airspace of Eastern Ukraine

9.18:05: Emergency services officials are surveying the crash site:

10.18:03: Flight MH17 took off from Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport at 12:14 local time. This AFP image was reportedly taken atthe time.

11.Carl Boylin in Leeds, UK emails: All aircraft should be rerouted in the short term to avoid any further loss of life

12.17:59: German airline Lufthansa says it has decided to avoid eastern Ukrainian air space with immediate effect, Reuters reports.

13.17:58: Another photograph from the crash site, taken by Reuters:

14.17:57: "The portable air defence systems which we have, they work at a maximum of three to four thousand metres. Therefore, it is possible to say virtually before the start of the investigation that the Ukrainian armed forces destroyed this," separatist spokesman Sergey Kavtaradze says.

15.17:57: A spokesman for pro-Russian separatists in the Donetsk region told Russia's Rossiya TV that they were not capable of bringing down a commercial airliner flying at 10,000 metres.

16.17:56: Reuters has this photograph of a Ukrainian emergencies ministry worker at the crash site:

17.Reuters news agency tweets: The site of a Malaysia Airlines plane crash in the settlement of Grabovo in Donetsk region:

http://bit.ly/1eP5C4X

18.17:53: Malaysia's Defence Minister Hishamuddin Hussein, who dealt with the disappearance of MH370 in March in his capacity as acting transport minister, has appealed for calm on Twitter, saying he is working with the foreign, transport and prime minister on the issue - via BBC Monitoring

19.17:52: A statement from Virgin Airlines says it "will be re-routing a small number of our flights this evening". It says it is closely monitoring the

Guardian Updates

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Malaysian foreign ministry is "working closely" with Russian and Ukrainian governments, deputy foreign minister Hamzah Zainuddin has told Malaysian news agency Bernama, as Tania Branigan relays from Beijing.Malaysian prime minister Najim Razak has tweeted that reports "shocked" him: "I am shocked by reports than an MH plane crashed. We are launching an immediate investigation."

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Verified photos from a Reuters photographer are starting to come in from Grabovo.

The site of a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 plane crash in the settlement of Grabovo in the Donetsk region. Photograph: Maxim Zmeyev/Reuters

My colleague Dan Milmo in London reports that it has been normal practice for airlines to fly over conflict zones since the Ukraine conflict began. He interviewed a pilot for a major European airline:

"We would often avoid areas where there is air-to-air conflict, but we flew over Iraq and Afghanistan when the British and US armed forces were delpoyed there, because only one side was using military jets."

Explaining why airlines fly over conflict zones where groups might be in possession of ground-to-air missiles, the pilot said: "There will be weapons based on the ground when you are at 30,000 feet, but that is far up in the air. There are not many missile systems that can be so accurate."

His comments suggest that assumptions about weapons capabilities on the ground will have to be reevaluated, pending investigation of the crash.

Lufthansa airlines will avoid east Ukrainian airspace immediately,Reuters snapsIn April, US flights were warned not to fly over conflict-ridden regions of eastern Ukraine by the FAA earlier this year.The White House has confirmed that Obama and Putin spoke on the phone this morning to discuss new US sanctions, Paul Lews reports, but did not say whether the call occurred before or after reports of the crash emerged.The Kremlin issued the following statement:"The Russian leader informed the US president about information received just before the telephone call from aviation services about the crash of a Malaysian plane over Ukrainian territory."

Russian president Vladimir Putin has released a statement via theKremlin website (Russian). It reads:

Vladimir Putin has expressed his deepest condolences to Prime Minister Najib Razak of Malaysia with regard to the accident in Ukrainianterritory of a Malaysian Airlines passenger aircraft, resulting in numerous casualties.

The Russian head of state asked him to convey his sincerest words of sympathy and support to families and friends of the victims.

We have a quick video report on the crash, with details as they currently stand.

MH17 crash in eastern Ukraine.

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Russia's UN envoy has denied any involvement, AFP reports."We didn't do it," Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told reporters at UN headquarters in New York.

Russian news outlet RIA Novosti reported that President Vladimir Putin has spoken with US President Barack Obama, butthe US has not confirmed any such conversation.Paul Lewis reports:

Barack Obama, who has just landed in Delaware, has been briefed about the airliner crash. His spokesman, Josh Earnest, told reporters on board Air Force One that the president had instructed his staff to keep him updated and make contact with senior Ukrainianofficials.

Reuters, on the scene, has tweeted a photo of the crash site near Grabovo.

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Aleksandr Borodai, the leader of the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic, has publicly denied rebel involvement in the crash, Alec Luhn reports.

Borodai tweeted (Russian) that the rebels were not involved in the attack. "According to initial information, the plane was shot down by Ukrainian air defence. The rebels don't have weapons with which they could shoot down a plane at 10,000 metres"But the Donetsk People's Republic said in June its forces had captured Buk missiles from a Ukrainian military base,Itar-Tass news agency reported. The Buk missile has a range of 18,000metres, according to some accounts.

The White House is in contact with Ukrainian officials, according to Reuters.Paul Lewis in Washington, has comments from a senior US official on rebels' weapon capabilities.

On Wednesday, a senior official from Barack Obama's administration cited the shooting downof a Ukrainian jet earlier this week as evidence of Russia's escalating involvement in the conflict. The official, speaking on the condition ofanonymity, suggested that the sophisticated weaponry that would have been required to down the transport jet, which was flying at high-altitude, on Monday, was likely to have been supplied across the Russian border.

Their full comments are below:

"Even in the face of all of this diplomacy that hasbeen going on, and very high level efforts by us, and key members of the European Union - notably France, Germany and the UK - over the the past month the flow of heavy weapons and support for separatists from Russia has actually increased.

"You will have seen on social media over the last week convoys of Russian tanks, armoured personnel carriers, infantry combat vehicles, grad rocket launchers, howitzers, self-propelled mortars, flowing into Ukraine. On 14 July the Ukrainian's lost an AN-26 transport jet which was shot down from an altitude of 21,000 feet with eight crew onboard. And only very sophisticated weapons systems would be able to reach this height."

Bodies and wreckage found near GrabovoDozens of bodies and broken pieces of wing with MH17 colorshave been found near the town of Grabovo, according to a Reuters correspondent.

Dozens of bodies were scattered around the smouldering wreckage of a passenger jet that crashed in eastern Ukraine on Thursday, a Reuters reporter said.

An emergency services rescue worker said at least 100 bodies had so far been found at the scene, near the village of Grabovo, and that debris from the wreckage was scattered across an area up to about 15km (nine miles) in diameter.

Broken pieces of the wings were marked with blue and red paint – the same colours as the emblem of the Malaysian airline which lost track of a flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur that was carrying almost 300 people.

President Poroshenko denies any Ukrainian military involvement, AP and Reuters report, responding to an accusation made by Aleksandr Borodai, a leader of the separatist camp."This is the third event in the last few days following An-26 and SU-25 planes being brought down. We do not exclude that this plane was also shot down and we stress that the armed forces ofUkraine did not carry out any action to destroy targets in the air," the press service said.

Earlier Thursday, Kiev accused Russia of involvement in downing aircraft.

Like Poroshenko, Malaysia's prime minister says he is launchingan immediate probe into the reported crash.

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Reuters is on the ground and has a correspondent near the wreck site.

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Rebels claim not to have the capabilities to shoot down the Malaysia flight, Alec Luhn reports per Interfax's story.

Interfax news agency has quoted leaders of the self-declared Donetsk people's republic denying that the rebels shot down the Malaysian airlines plane. A reported member of the republic's security council said the rebels only have weapons able to shoot down a plane at 3,000 metres and blamed Ukrainian military forces for the attack. (The plane was reportedly flying at 10,000 metres).

But officials from Ukraine's defence ministry andnational security council said the rebels have Buk surface-to-air missiles able to shoot down planes at such elevations and suggested one was used in the attack.

Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko called for the creation of acommission to investigate the accident.

"This is the third tragic incident in recent days after Ukrainian military An-26 and Su-25 jets were shot down from Russian territory. We don't rule out that this plane was also shot down, and we stress that the Ukrainian military didn't take any actions to destroy targets in the air," he said.

Separatist rebels in east Ukraine deny any involvement to Russian news agency Interfax, relays the New York Times' former Moscow correspondent Ellen Barry.

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Malaysia's defence and acting transport minister Hishammuddin Hussein says his office will investigate via his Twitter feed:

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*Correction: It is now Liow Tiong Lai, who is currently in Beijing, according to Malaysia's Bernama news agency.

Hishammuddin Hussein has urged calm.

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Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine's interior minister, haswritten on Facebook (Russian) that "280 passengers and 15 members have died" in the crash, and that the plane was last recorded flying at 10,000 meters.He links to an unverified video showing smoke rising in eastern Ukraine, and accuses militants of shooting down the plane: "A civilian airliner travelling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur has just been shot down by a Buk anti-aircraft system."

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1.21:22: The UK Foreign Office has set up ahelpline for those who think theirrelatives may have been involvedin the crash. Anyone concernedcan text MH17 to +44 7860010026,call 020 7008 1500 or fill out anonline form at https://overseas-crisis.service.gov.uk. It is not yetclear whether any Britons were onthe plane.

2.21:16: Aviation expert Julian Bray tells theBBC he was surprised any airlineswere still flying over easternUkraine."Normally what they do [is] they flyaround it - they declare it black andsay 'no we're not going in there' orthey send their aircraft a littlehigher," he says.

3.21:13: US carrier Delta Air Lines has saidit was no longer sending flightsthrough Ukrainian airspace."Out of an abundance of caution,Delta is not routing flights throughUkrainian airspace and ismonitoring the situation involvingMalaysia Airlines Flight 17," Deltasaid in a statement.

4.Secretary General ofNATO, Anders Fogh

Rasmussen tweets: I am shocked & saddenedby crash of #Malaysia #MH17. Myfull statement is here:http://ow.ly/zhHcq

5.21:09: More on the ceasefire plan.Alexander Borodai, prime minister of the self-proclaimed "Donetsk People's Republic", tells journalists he is prepared to agree to a truce for several days.

6.21:06:

Malaysia Airlines has tweeted that it lost contact with MH17, as reported by Reuters.

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A passenger jet belonging to Malaysia Airlines reportedly crashed in eastern Ukraine in an area where separatist rebels have been engaging Ukrainian Army forces in recent weeks.

The plane, travelling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, apparently had 295 people on board and crashed near the town of Snezhnoe, according to a report from Interfax which could not immediately be confirmed.

A source in the Russian aviation industry told Reuters that the plane did not enter Russian airspace when expected and had indeed crashed in eastern Ukraine. Quoting an aviation source, Reuters also reported that burning wreckage was found.

In recent days the Ukrainian air force has lost planes in the area after they have been shot down by rebels. Earlier on Thursday, Ukraine accused Russia of downing one of its fighter jets inside Ukrainian territory.

Parts of the MH17 plane wreckage can be seen in the background, near the settlement of Grabovo in the Donetsk region.

7.21:02: A press conference is expected at some point on Thursday evening at Schiphol airport in Amsterdam.8.20:55:BREAKING NEWS A pro-Russia rebel leader in east Ukraine says they are ready to call a ceasefire for several days to facilitate an investigation into the crash, according to reports.

9.20:49:

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 is seen at the G3 gate of Schiphol airport in Amsterdam, before it took off, heading to Kuala Lumpur.

10.Flightradar24, who tracks air traffic in real time, tweets: Less flights over Ukraine. More flights over Bulgaria and Turkey after #MH17

11.20:41: Anna Holligan, BBC News, Schiphol airport, Amsterdam

Passengers' families are being taken to a bar inside the airport and that police have set up a cordon to separate thepress. The buses outside suggest they may be taken to an alternative location imminently, our correspondent adds.

12.20:36: "No surface-to-air systems are involved in the military operation against separatists in the east, and the plane was out of reach of other Ukrainian air defence forces," the statement from Ukraine's Defence Ministry added. (BBC Monitoring)

13.20:35: Ukraine's Defence Ministry has said that no Ukrainian fighter jets were in the air in the area where the Malaysian plane was shot down.

14.20:33: And a quick recap. A Malaysian airliner carrying 295 people has crashed in east Ukraine on a flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, amid allegations it was shot down. The BBC has a summary of what we know so far.

15.20:31: In the YouTube footage a militant nicknamed "Major" is seen saying it was shot down by "Cossacks from the Chernukhino roadblock".Major goes on to say: "It is definitely a civilian plane... there was a lot of people on board," BBC Monitoring reports.

16.20:27: BBC Monitoring reports more from the conversation between militants allegedly intercepted by the Ukrainian Security Service.The conversation starts with Igor Bezler, a key militant, apparently telling a Russian security official by phone that the pro-Russian militants have shot down a plane.

17.20:23: The Ukrainian Security Service SBU haspublished on its Youtube account what it says are intercepted conversations between pro-Russian militants in which they say they admit shooting down a civilian plane, BBC Monitoring reports.

18.18:31: Dutch PM Mark Rutte is returning to the Netherlands from a summit in Brussels, Reuters reports. In a statement, hesaid he was "deeply shocked" by reports of the crashed plane, which took off from the Dutch capital Amsterdam, but added "much is still unclear about the facts, circumstances and the passengers".

19.ABC News tweets: JUST IN: US State Dept. working to determine if there were any US citizens on board Flight MH17

- @AliABCNews

20.18:30: Independent Malaysian news portal Malaysiakini says new transport minister Liow Tiong-lai is on his way back to Kuala Lumpur to handle the MH17 incident. He was visiting Beijing where his itinerary included discussion of the search of the missing flight MH370 with China.

21.18:29: Another image of the debris of the Boeing 777 scattered on the ground:

22.Russian News Agency RIA Novostitweets: Putin expresses his "sincere condolences" to Malaysian PM on MH17 aircraft crash

23.18:25: Graphic images from the crash site, showing debris and bodies, are currently being broadcast by the privately-owned pro-Kremlin rolling Russian news channel LifeNews, our colleagues at BBC Monitoring report.

24.18:24: The Interfax news agency quotes Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko as saying the incident was a "terrorist act",Reuters reports.

25.18:20: The UK department of transport issues a statement stating: "Flights already airborne are being routed around the area by air traffic control in the region." Pilots around the world are being advised to plan routes that avoid the area,it adds.

26.18:19: Malaysia Airlines is expected to hold a press conference on the incident at 04:00 local time (21:00 BST), the BBC understands.

27.18:16: The plane went down near the village of Grabovo, which is currently under the control of armed pro-Russian separatists. The region has been the scene of severe fighting between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatist rebels in recent days, AP reports.

28.18:16: As well as Lufthansa, Russian airliner Transaero has also announced it is avoiding Ukrainian airspace for all future flights following the Malaysia airlines crash, Reuters reports.

29.Reuters tweets: #BREAKING: Air France says has decided to avoid airspace of Eastern Ukraine

30.18:05: Emergency services officials are surveying the crash site:

31.18:03: Flight MH17 took off from Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport at 12:14 local time. This AFP image was reportedly taken atthe time.

32.Carl Boylin in Leeds, UK emails: All aircraft should be rerouted in the short term to avoid any further loss of life

33.17:59: German airline Lufthansa says it has decided to avoid eastern Ukrainian air space with immediate effect, Reuters reports.

34.17:58: Another photograph from the crash site, taken by Reuters:

35.17:57: "The portable air defence systems which we have, they work at a maximum of three to four thousand metres. Therefore, it is possible to say virtually before the start of the investigation that the Ukrainian armed forces destroyed this," separatist spokesman Sergey Kavtaradze says.

36.17:57: A spokesman for pro-Russian separatists in the Donetsk region told Russia's Rossiya TV that they were not capable of bringing down a commercial airliner flying at 10,000 metres.

37.17:56: Reuters has this photograph of a Ukrainian emergencies ministry worker at the crash site:

38.Reuters news agency tweets: The site of a Malaysia Airlines plane crash in the settlement of Grabovo in Donetsk region:

http://bit.ly/1eP5C4X

39.17:53: Malaysia's Defence Minister Hishamuddin Hussein, who dealt with the disappearance of MH370 in March in his capacity as acting transport minister, has appealed for calm on Twitter, saying he is working with the foreign, transport and prime minister on the issue - via BBC Monitoring

40.17:52: A statement from Virgin Airlines says it "will be re-routing a small number of our flights this evening". It says it is closely monitoring the situation.

41.17:51: Former UK ambassador to Russia Sir Tony Brenton tells the BBC if the plane has been shot down it has "quite profound political implications". He says sanctions and "world condemnation" of the pro-Russia rebels could follow if it turns out they have shot down the plane.

42.17:50: Malaysia Airlines has released a statement saying it received notification from Ukrainian air traffic control that it

had lost contact with flight MH17 at 1415 GMT at 30km from Tamak waypoint, approximately 50km (31 miles) from the Russia-Ukraine border.

43.17:46: AFP quotes the Kremlin as saying that Mr Putin "informed [President Obama] about an air-traffic controllers' report that came just before their phone conversation that a Malaysian p