Ukraine: Recordings show rebels shot down Malaysia Airlines plane

Ukraine's security services have produced what they say are two intercepted telephone conversations showing rebels were responsible for downing the Malaysian airliner that crashed this morning with 295 people on board.

In the first call, rebel commander Igor Bezler is said to tell a Russian military intelligence officer that rebel forces shot down a plane today.

In the second, two rebel fighters - one of them at the scene of the crash - say the rocket attack was carried out by a unit of insurgents about 25 kilometres north of the crash site.

Neither recording could be independently verified.

One of the fighters, who states he is at the site where the plane came to the ground, describes seeing scattered debris. He later describes finding the documents of somebody he identifies as an Indonesian national studying at "Thompson University".

Malaysia Airlines plane flight MH17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine early today. Both the government and the pro-Russia separatists fighting in the region denied any responsibility for downing the aircraft.

Plumes of black smoke rose up near a rebel-held village of Hrabove, 40 kilometres from the Russian border.

The Boeing 777-200ER plane, travelling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, appeared to have broken up before impact and the burning wreckage - which included body parts and the belongings of passengers - was scattered over a wide area.

Malaysia Airlines said Ukrainian aviation authorities told the company they had lost contact with MH17 at 1415 GMT (2.15am NZT).

It said the plane was carrying 280 passengers and 15 crew.

Anton Gerashenko, an adviser to Ukraine's interior minister, said on his Facebook page the plane was flying at an altitude of 10,000 metres when it was hit by a missile from a Buk launcher, which can fire up to an altitude of 22,000 metres.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called the downing an act of terrorism and called for an international investigation into the crash. He insisted that his forces did not shoot down the plane.

President Barack Obama called the crash a "terrible tragedy" and said he had discussed it on the phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

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