A silent march in Amsterdam broken only by some singing followed a day full of emotion as the first of the bodies from last week’s Malaysia airlines disaster arrived in the Netherlands.

Two thirds of the 298 victims of flight MH17 were Dutch and the sombre sight of a convoy of hearses will be repeated many times over the coming days.

Ukraine, where the plane came down, hopes to return all the bodies of several nationalities by the end of the week.

As the mourning goes on so does the investigation. The cockpit voice recorder of the ill-fated jet is said to be in good condition. It and the digital data recorder are both now in the hands of British experts.

In an interview with Reuters news agency Ukrainian rebel leader Alexander Khodakovsky has for the first time confirmed that pro-Russian separatists had an anti-aircraft missile, of the type Washington says was used to bring the plane down.

Although the rebel leader later denied everything, accident investigators studying the debris of the plane have highlighted puncture marks on some of the fuselage consisted with a missile detonation.