MH17: The scene is horrendous - NZ journo

Representatives from the OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) delegation inspect passengers' personal luggage collected at the site of MH17. Photo / AP

New Zealand journalist Alexi O'Brien this morning described the scene as horrendous. O'Brien is in the Ukraine for Al Jazeera.

By nightfall, at about 4am New Zealand time, emergency services were working their way through the fields and marking out the scene with lighted sticks, O'Brien said.

"We are not going to be putting a lot of what we can see onto camera," she said.

"As we went out this evening, we had to stay on the road as we didn't want to encounter the bodies. Last night when we first arrived, there were still some large pieces on the road but these have now been cleared away."

O'Brien said there was nothing to compare the scene to.

"I was speaking to a security guard, and he has been in the army here and the fire service and he said he had never seen anything like this."