By: Opeoluwa Adeniji
Malaysians on Friday, observed a moment of silence following the arrival in Kuala Lumpur of the bodies of 20 Malaysian victims of Flight MH17 that crashed in Ukraine in July.
A specially chartered plane took off from Amsterdam and landed around 10:00 local time (02:00 GMT).
National flags are flying at half-mast for the day of mourning.
The plane is believed to have been shot down by a missile fired by pro-Russian rebels. The rebels however denied that claim.
Groups of Malaysia Airlines staff were on the tarmac at the Kuala Lumpur airport to receive the corpses while over 30 million Malaysians observed a minute’s silence as white hearses drove the remains from the airport to private funerals in various provinces.
The country’s public transportation, including the national rail system and Kuala Lumpur’s monorail, paused during the minute of silence.
Najib Razak, Prime Minister, who turned his Twitter and Facebook pages black, wrote a condolence message that was widely shared.
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