New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has written to his Dutch counterpart Mark Rutte expressing his condolences on the loss of lives in crash of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 and hoping that circumstances of the disaster will quickly be established, a statement said Friday.

The Boeing 777, en route to Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam, crashed Thursday afternoon in the conflict-hit Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine killing all 298 passengers and crew on board.

According to a release from the prime minister's office, Modi wrote that the people of India share the sorrow and stand in mourning with the bereaved families and the Dutch people. "The Prime Minister wrote that he hopes the circumstances of the disaster are established quickly and that such tragedies are prevented," the release said.

According to a list given by Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong La, there were 173 Dutch passengers on board the doomed aircraft. Among the others were 44 Malaysians, 27 Australians, 12 Indonesians, nine Britons, four Germans, four Belgians, three Filipinos, one Canadian, and one New Zealander, while the the nationality of four more was yet to be identified.