PHOTOS: Bodies of #MH17 crash victims arrive Netherlands

The first bodies of those killed in the MH17 massacre have arrived in the Netherlands to be greeted by grieving relatives and members of the Dutch royal family.

The remains of around 40 international victims of the Malaysia Airlines tragedy left Ukraine's Kharkiv airport on two planes earlier today, ahead of a painstaking identification process which is expected to take several months.

The dignified reception at Eindhoven airport is in stark contrast to the treatment of the victims' remains in eastern Ukraine in the days after the crash, where pro-Russian rebels left corpses to decay in the summer heat in body bags dumped around the crash site.


Members of the Dutch royal family - including King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima - were in Eindhoven to meet the plane, alongside the grieving relatives of the 298 people - including 10 Britons - killed when the Boeing 777-200 was apparently shot down last Thursday.