‘Big birds flying to us from the sky’

Tony Abbott has said it's not too late for Russia to cooperate with investigators of downed flight MH17.

Hideous ... flowers, candles and plush toys are left by electronic wreckage at the site of the crash. Source: AFP

AT AN orphanage on the outskirts of Donetsk in Ukraine's east last Thursday, 20 children chatted and joked as they enjoyed a late lunch in the garden, a canopy of trees offering some relief from the stifling temperatures in the scruffy institution's rooms.

Then a boom rang out in the skies overhead and for a moment they saw nothing. They remained quiet.

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And then it rained human bodies and debris from Malaysian Airlines MH17.

"Big birds flying to us from the sky," one child recalled, thinking at that moment anything else was unimaginable.

Within moments bodies were strewn along their street with two in the garden of the small institution, one the body of a Malaysian boy aged in his early teens — not much older that those who moments earlier had been enjoying an outdoor summer lunch — and another of a woman.

Impossible operation ... a man blocks access to the scene of the crash of MH17. Source: Getty Images

She had no face, the ground impact erasing all features. Both were naked with the fall tearing away at their clothes.

In the home next door a man still strapped into his seat landed in a garden of an elderly grandmother. She thinks it was a man — there was nothing above the torso. Across rooftops things fell, books, bags, knives and forks then later a section of a cockpit landed across the road from the orphanage.

Eight bodies in total were found in that small area alone..

"It was almost biblical," a woman at the orphanage said.

"You think about their life these children, they have already encountered so much, some have fathers in jail others no parents, they hear shelling and bombings every day nearby and here they are in the garden when bodies and things fall. Can you imagine that? Of course they were upset but they were also upset because they were today to go to the Black Sea for a break to get away and the local train station is bombed and now they cannot go."

Grim task ... emergency workers carry the body of a victim at the crash site near the village of Hrabove, eastern Ukraine. Source: AP

A teacher at the orphanage, Larissa Zvereva, breaks down in tears as she recounts the horror. She cannot speak.

The people, young and old, from the rural villages about Donetsk — the self proclaimed capital of the pro-Russian separatist forces — have been deeply affected by the death of the 298 passengers and crew from MH17.

These are battle-hardened people but they are in deep shock by the horror of what they have seen and smelt of recent days.

Photographs of people, strangers to them, but presumably holiday snaps from the 298 found on the streets and in fields were gathered in what is makeshift memorial on what the city declared a day of public mourning.

Chaos ... a truck carrying the bodies of some of the passengers of MH17 leaves the scene. Source: Getty Images

While some photographs were from the plane, others were photocopies of pictures from local newspapers including the young Maslin family from Australia, dutifully placed in plastic sleeves to protect from the elements. The images are surrounded by soft toys — a koalas here, pink rabbit there, some found, others bought by locals as a memorial to this tragedy's youngest victims.

Many of the bodies have been removed already, witnesses say up to 200, carried away by volunteers including coal miners from site nearby.

It's a duty that one said he did not want to perform but felt obligated to.

"The smell is really bad but the whole thing, this tragedy, is worse," he said.

The men and women were being directed by the local fire chief in blue overalls, carrying corpses on makeshift stretchers to a small bus.

Heartache ... flowers and toys are left at the site of the crash. Source: AFP

Further along the road, however, there were several plastic sheets over a hump. Underneath the plastic, locals said, were the remains of eight children all together.

"I cannot get that sight out of my head. They were all mangled and burnt," said one woman. "I'm not sure why they were not removed with the others and we don't know how it was that they were all together."

Despite the removal of most of the bodies the stench death in the area remains strong.

Temperatures in the largely agrarian area where the Boeing was downed have been in the high 20s for most of the week, hitting 30 degrees on Sunday. With intermittent light rain the bodies were in a stage of decomposition.

Some bodies have been taken to morgues in Dunetsk, which have been guarded by militia with Kalashnikovs. The guards refuse to confirm or deny that bodies from the flight are in the morgues. Some of the morgues are said to lack refrigeration.

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