No French on crashed Malaysia Airlines plane in Ukraine, Hollande
No French nationals died in the crash of the Malaysia Airlines MH17 airliner apparently shot down over eastern Ukraine on Thursday, President François Hollande announced on Friday, citing documents from the company.
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“According to documents sent by the airline, there would have been no French victims because there were no French people on board the plane unless a case has not yet been brought to light,” Hollande said during a tour of Africa that took him to Niger on Friday.
Earlier on Friday Hollande said that several Franch nationals could have been on the plane and Foreign Affairs Minister Laurent Fabius on Thursday said that there had been four before retracting and saying he had no details of the passengers.
Nearly 300 people died in the disaster and Malaysia Airlines was unable to identify all the passengers immediately.
Hollande joined calls for an international investigation into the causes of the crash, as the US and Ukraine claimed pro-Russian separatists had shot it down with a surface-to-air missile.
“What happened is a tragedy whose case we must find out,” Hollande said on Friday. “France demands an international inquiry to known the truth and find out who is responsible.”
Hollande said he had talked to Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on the telephone, saying that he was “deeply moved” and shocked”.
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