- What we know about Malaysia Airlines flight MH17
- Extended coverage: Malaysia Airlines jet MH17 shot down, 27 Aussies among 295 killed
The tail of a passenger jet lay in a corn field with the Malaysian Airlines insignia on it while insurgent fighters and several fire trucks were seen nearby the crash site.
Charred debris stinking of kerosene stretched for kilometres across the rebel-controlled zone in the Donetsk region.
Eyewitnesses told AFP that the jet appeared to explode in mid-air before wreckage rained down over a large area.
Shocked local residents struggled to take in the scene of the carnage and said that remnants of the jet had been found in a village some 9 kilometres from the centre of the crash site.
Shell-shocked locals said the impact felt "like an earthquake" in their village of Grabove, near the Russian border.
"I had just gone to sleep at around 1600 (1300 GMT) when I heard an enormous bang," Katya, 64, told AFP. "It was like an earthquake."
Her daughter Natalya, 36, said that she had fled to safety when the sound of the explosion rumbled overhead.
"I took my baby and went and hid in the basement," she said.
At Amsterdam's Schipol airport, from where the ill-fated jet took off, an AFP journalist saw family members in tears, while Dutch television broadcast harrowing images of passports found in the wreck, including those of children.
A top rebel leader said his forces were prepared to agree to a short ceasefire to allow for the recovery operation.
Unverified images have spread across social media which reportedly show the debris from the crash.
