Danger halts search for MH17 victims

Fierce fighting in eastern Ukraine has forced authorities to suspend the search for victims who died when Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot out of the sky, CNN reported.

"The Dutch mission at the crash site of MH17 has stopped," Prime Minister Mark Rutte told reporters Wednesday.

Search teams plan to return to the plane crash site, Rutte said. But he didn't give a date of when that might happen.

"We have done what we could do in the current conditions," Rutte said. "Everyone will agree with us that we should not expose our people to unnecessary risk."

Constant shelling was heard north of Donetsk on Wednesday evening.

And small-arms fire came very close to the investigation team at the crash site Wednesday, forcing them to withdraw from the site, said Pieter-Jaap Aalbersberg, head of the recovery mission.

Searchers are disappointed they haven't been able to complete their mission, he said. But he said they did make significant headway, recovering human remains and personal belongings like photo albums, diaries and toys.

"We aim to return to the crash site as soon as we have the opportunity to work there for a longer period under stable conditions," he said.