Fresh violence halts plane probe in Ukraine

Fighting in Ukraine is again slowing investigators from examining the scene where Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 crashed last month, according to news reports.

A team of international forensics experts sent to Eastern Ukraine to learn what caused the crash has been forced to halt part of its investigation after shots were fired nearby, according to the BBC.

Nearly 300 passengers and crew members lost their lives when the Malaysian flight crashed on July 17.

{mosads}U.S. and Ukrainian officials have accused pro-Russian forces of shooting down the plane, which the rebels deny. They are pointing the finger at Ukraine, saying it was shot down by a fighter jet.

A team of Dutch and Australian investigators are in Ukraine to get to the bottom of things, examining a 12-square-mile site where the plane crashed.

Apparently, they received permission from both sides to travel to a town named Petropavlivka, but were forced to stop their investigation and hide when they heard gun shots.

“We heard at a distance of approximately two kilometers incoming artillery from where we were and that was too close to continue,” Alexander Hug, the lead investigator, told Agence France-Presse.

But the investigators have still been able to examine other parts of the crash site, according to reports.