Photos: Heartbroken Netherlands receives bodies of MH17 victims

The first bodies from flight MH17 arrived in the Netherlands on Wednesday almost a week after it was shot down over Ukraine. Uniformed Dutch military personnel solemnly hoisted 40 wooden coffins from two planes and placed them in individual hearses at Eindhoven airport in the south of the country in a powerfully sombre ceremony, as a trumpeter played the Last Post and a large crowd of the bereaved watched, shielded from the press

[caption id=“attachment_1631831” align=“alignleft” width=“940”] A coffin of one of the victims of MH17. Uniformed Dutch military personnel solemnly hoisted 40 wooden coffins from two planes and placed them in individual hearses at Eindhoven airport: Netherlands[/caption] [caption id=“attachment_1631835” align=“alignleft” width=“940”] King Willem Alexander (L) and Queen Maxima of the Netherlands (2ndL), Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte (C) and officials at the national reception ceremony at Eindhoven airport. Around 1,000 bereaved relatives of the 193 Dutch dead were also present: Reuters[/caption] [caption id=“attachment_1631837” align=“alignleft” width=“940”] The convoy of hearses with the remains of the victims of Malaysia Airlines MH17 downed over rebel-held territory in eastern Ukraine, drives past international flags as it leaves Eindhoven airport to a military base in Hilversum: Reuters[/caption] [caption id=“attachment_1631839” align=“alignleft” width=“940”] Flight attendants and mourners gather near flower bouquets as they pay their respects at Schiphol Airport. A minute’s silence was observed nationwide, during which no flights landed or took off at Schiphol, from where the doomed Boeing 777 left six days earlier: Reuters[/caption] [caption id=“attachment_1631843” align=“alignleft” width=“940”] A man pays his respects at Schiphol Airport during a national day of mourning for the victims killed in Thursday’s Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 plane disaster, in Schiphol: Reuters[/caption] [caption id=“attachment_1631845” align=“alignleft” width=“940”] The national flag of the Netherlands is flown at half staff at the Hermitage Museum Amsterdam to mark a national day of mourning for the victims of MH17: Reuters[/caption]