'Bodies Scattered Everywhere' at Debris Field: Witness

ByRHEANA MURRAY ABCNews logo
Friday, July 18, 2014

A witness on scene of the downed Malaysia Airlines plane in Ukraine described the sight as "grim" and said there are "bodies scattered everywhere."

"There's blood splattered everywhere, and pieces of remains," said John Wendle, a freelance reporter for ABC News. "It's a pretty grim sight. ... This is terrible."

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He added that Ukrainian emergency services were on site and that "rebel fighters had secured the area," after a Boeing 777 carrying 298 people went down today in eastern Ukraine, near the Russian border.

Wendle, a photojournalist and videographer, described the site of Flight MH17's wreckage as "a small country road going between two fields."

"There are a number of emergency vehicles that have turned up and the Ukraine emergency services are here," he said, adding that "rebel fighters had secured the area."

It's nighttime, so it's hard to see much, but men with flashlights are searching the area, highlighting victims' body parts, Wendle said.

"I did see part of fuselage near the road and kind of spread out in the area," he said. "It's dark right now so it's difficult to see anything."

Flight MH17 was traveling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur with 283 passengers and 15 crew members on board. Ukrainian authorities said that everyone on board is "believed dead." Ukrainian officials also say it was a Russian missile that downed the plane.

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