Sky News and reporter apologise for rummaging through MH17 luggage

British broadcaster Sky News apologised after one of its presenters searched through luggage at the crash site of downed flight MH17 live on air.

In a news broadcast on Sunday, presenter Colin Brazier was shown rummaging through personal belongings in an opened suitcase at the site, picking up a set of keys before saying: "We shouldn't really be doing this."

The footage was greeted with anger on social media, including calls for Brazier to be sacked.

BBC presenter Jacqui Oatley said she was "astonished", while Joe Watson, a professor of mass media at Baker University, described it as a "horrible moment for journalism".

A Sky News spokesman said Brazier immediately recognised that what he had done was inappropriate and both he and Sky News apologised profusely.