The tragic victims of Flight MH17: First pictures of passengers who perished on plane blown out of the sky above Ukraine - including a British UN worker, a brilliant AIDS doctor and a Catholic nun

As many as 100 AIDS experts on their way to an international conference, a Catholic nun from Australia, two Newcastle United football fans - and 80 children were among the 298 victims killed when a passenger jet was shot out of the sky at 32,000ft by a surface-to-air missile yesterday.

Today identities of the passengers - all of whom are thought to have died - have begun to emerge. The victims include nine Britons, 173 Dutch and 27 Australians.

The Boeing 777 aircraft was travelling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it was hit by a sophisticated surface-to-air missile over territory near Donetsk held by pro-Russian rebels who the Ukrainian government says are backed by the Kremlin. Russian President Vladimir Putin has blamed Ukraine for the attack.

The plane was shot down in an 'act of terrorism', killing all 298 passengers and crew on board, including three Australian children, aged between eight and 12, who were travelling with their grandfather.

Child victims: Three grandchildren, Mo Maslin, 12, (left), his brother Otis, eight, (centre) and sister Evie Maslin, 10, (right) were killed on the flight along with their grandfather Nick Morris

 Victim: Briton Glenn Thomas, 49, was among the 298 killed when Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was blasted out of the sky by a surface-to-air missile

Student: Richard Mayne, 20, was another of the British victims, who studied maths and finance at Leeds University

Traveller: Mr Mayne was on his way to spend a year in Australia, friends said, and had been at a celebratory barbecue days before where he was wished good luck

 Newcastle Fans: John Alder, pictured left at a Newcastle game, and Liam Sweeney, right, were football supporters who were travelling to watch Newcastle United play in New Zealand when MH17 was shot out of the skies

Victims: Melbourne student Elaine Teoh

Perth man Nick Norris

Real estate agent Albert Rizk

Mr Rizk's wife Marie

 
It has also been confirmed that NSW resident Sister Philomene Tiernan (centre), a teacher at eastern Sydney's Catholic girls' school in Kincoppal-Rose Bay, was also on the plane

 
Recently retired pathologist Roger Guard (left) and his wife Jill (right) from Toowoomba in Queensland, have also been identified from the MH17 flight

Scientist: Leading HIV researcher Joep Lange (pictured) died in the MH17 crash

Conference: Pim de Kuijer, another AIDS researcher, was on his way to the Melbourne conference

Conference: Pim de Kuijer, another AIDS researcher, was on his way to the Melbourne conference

Pilot: Eugene Choo Jin Leong was flying MH17 when it was shot down. Malaysia Airlines has described him as one of their most trusted pilots

 

Victims from around the world: Regis Crolla, left, was one of the 173 Dutch nationals on board the flight out of Amsterdam, while stewardess Azrina Yakob, right, was thought to have been working on board the