Following news reports that the credit cards of passengers killed on downed Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 had been looted, the Dutch Banking Association on Saturday said it would take "preventative measures" to protect Dutch victims' accounts.
"International media report that victims' bank cards may have been stolen. … Banks are taking preventative measures when necessary," the statement said.
Several international media outlets have reported looting at the crash site, although direct evidence of theft is scarce — in part because international observers were denied access to the scene by the pro-Russian separatists who control the area.
Ukrainian officials on Saturday accused separatist rebels of destroying evidence at the site and of removing 38 bodies from the scene, while Anton Gerashchenko, an advisor to Ukraine's Interior Minister, wrote on his Facebook account Friday that he had received reports of looting.
"Just now I have received information that the terrorists-marauders yesterday took not only cash and jewelry from the perished passengers of the Boeing, but particularly hunted for the credit cards of their victims," Gerashchenko wrote.
Banks will compensate the victims' next of kin for any losses resulting from abuse of their bank cards, the Dutch Banking Association said in their statement.
Of the 298 people who perished in Thursday's crash, 193 were Dutch nationals.
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