King "deeply saddened"

King Willem Alexander is “deeply saddened” by the news of the crash of Malaysian Air flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine.

In a statement on the royal family’s website the King stated that “just like the rest of the Netherlands”, he and his wife Queen Maxima are following the news reports with hopes that there will be more clarity soon.

“Our thoughts are with family, friends, colleagues and people who knew the victims and those that are still not sure whether their loved ones were on the flight,” the statement said.

There were 154 Dutch nationals among the 298 people who perished yesterday when flight MH17 went down; the Boeing 777 was allegedly hit by a missile in the Donetsk region of the Ukraine in an area controlled by pro-Russian separatists.

A pro-Russian separatist leader in Ukraine has this morning reportedly claimed responsibility for shooting down the Malaysia Airlines MH17 flight over the East of the country. Igor Girkin, also known as Strelkov, posted his claim on a Russian social media site, thinking that he had downed a Ukrainian military transport plane.