Shelling forces experts to leave MH17 crash site

Grabove - Shelling close to the vast crash site of downed flight MH17 forced international investigators on Saturday to cut short a visit to an area where some of the jet's wreckage is lying, an OSCE observer with probe team said.

"We heard at a distance of approximately two kilometres incoming artillery from where we were and that was too close to continue," said Alexander Hug, deputy chief monitor with the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe's mission in Ukraine.

Hug said the team had agreed earlier with both government forces and pro-Russian rebels to visit the village of Petropavlivka as part of the broader search operation.