GRABOVE (UKRAINE) - Scores of bodies recovered at the crash site of Malaysian plane MH17 in Ukraine have been removed, an AFP reporter on the scene said on Sunday.
Ukrainian rescue workers carry the body of a victim through a wheat field at the site of the crash of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in east Ukraine, on July 19, 2014
Pro-Russian rebels who had been guarding the main impact site also appeared to have left, with about a dozen stretchers, paper masks and plastic gloves abandoned at the scene.
Poles marking locations where bodies had been found in the field had also been removed.
Russian news agency Ria Novosti said a train with five refrigerated carriages carrying the corpses departed Sunday from a station close to the main crash site and was heading for rebel stronghold Donetsk.
Monitors from European security body OSCE inspected the carriages at Torez station, Ria Novosti said, quoting them as saying a total of 198 bodies were on board -- presumably recovered from across the vast crash site.
Local emergency crews, also absent from the crash site Sunday, declined to comment when contacted by telephone but said that the separatists would be releasing an official statement later.