Aust, Dutch police scrap MH17 site visit

Aust, Dutch police scrap MH17 site visit

6 HOURS AGOJULY 27, 2014 9:33PM

Australian police officers haven't been able to travel to the MH17 crash site in the Ukraine. Source: AAP

DUTCH forensic experts haven't been able to travel to the MH17 crash site as planned due to fighting in the region.

SOME 11 Australian Federal Police (AFP) officers had been planning to accompany the Dutch-led contingent, Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced earlier on Sunday.

But the Netherlands' security and justice department says the situation is too unstable for a large contingent to carry out its work.

"The team of 30 Dutch forensic experts currently has no safe passage tothe crash site," the department said in a statement.

"Because of fighting in the region the situation is still too unstable to safely go to the crash site to work."

The department said the Dutch team was remaining in the the rebel-controlled city of Donetsk.

Russian-backed separatists in control of the area around the MH17 crash site in Ukraine have agreed to allow an unarmed international police team to recover more bodies and start a forensic examination of wreckage.

The AFP officers will be unarmed even though Mr Abbott admits it will be a risky mission.

"Our objective is to get in, get cracking and to get out," he told reporters in Canberra.