The official, Anton Gerashchenko, said all the 280 passengers and 15 crew had been killed.

(Writing by Richard Balmforth; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

This is a breaking story. Please check back for updates. The previous story and alerts are below.

KIEV, July 17 (Reuters) – A Malaysian passenger airliner with 295 people on board crashed in Ukraine near the Russian border on Thursday, the Interfax news agency cited an aviation industry source as saying.

The Boeing plane was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, it said. Reuters could not immediately confirm the report.

The Interfax report said the plane came down 50 km (20 miles) short of entering Russian airspace. It “began to drop, afterwards it was found burning on the ground on Ukrainian territory,” the unnamed source said.

The plane appeared to have come down in a region of military action where Ukrainian government forces are battling pro-Russian separatists.

A separate unnamed source in the Ukrainian security apparatus, quoted by Interfax, said the plane disappeared from radar at a height of 10,000 metres after which it came down near the town of Shakhtyorsk.

Alerts:

• Malaysia Airlines Twitter feed says airline has lost contact with Flight MH17 from Amsterdam
• Malaysia Airlines and the Malaysian Ministry of Transport said on Thursday they had no information about any airliner that may have been crashed over Ukraine.
• 280 passengers, 15 crew died on plane, says Ukrainian Interior Ministry adviser quoted by Interfax.
• Malaysian plane was brought down by a Buk ground-to-air missile – Interior Ministry adviser, quoted by Interfax

(Reporting by Alissa de Carbonnel; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)