THE University of Nottingham is facing an anxious wait to find out if any of its students could have been on board a plane that crashed with 298 passengers and crew.
There are no signs of survivors on Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, which crashed in eastern Ukraine near the Russian border on Thursday.
Both sides in the ongoing Ukrainian civil conflict have accused the other of shooting the plane down in the rebel-held territory.
The Boeing 777 was flying from Amsterdam, Holland, to the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur – where the University of Nottingham has a campus.
A spokesman for the university said it had been confirmed no staff members were booked on board the flight.
"It's obviously possible that some students have booked independently or privately, so it's harder to tell – especially because it's outside of term time."
Latest figures show the plane was carrying ten Britons, 189 Dutch, 44 Malaysians (including 15 crew), 28 Australians and various other nationalities.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak and Malaysian Airlines chief executive Ahmad Jauhari Yahya both studied in Nottingham.
