Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crash

Service men of the maritime security of the State Border Service of Ukraine prepare to patrol the Tahanroz'ka gulf of the sea of Azov, off the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol to prevent illegal entry of armed groups and smuggling of weapons from nearb (AFP/Getty Images)

An international team of investigators has finally reached the crash site of the Malasia Airlines jet MH17, two weeks after the plane came down over rebel-held territory in eastern Ukraine.

The team, composed of forensic experts from the Netherlands and Australia and supported by an armed police escort, will start by scouring the site to check for bodies that have not yet been retrieved.

Their arrival came after a week in which fighting between government and pro-Russian separatist troops repeatedly blocked their route to the area.

A statement released by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said that its monitors, who have previously been to the site, used "a new route" to access it this time accompanied by the international forensics team.