Media professor Joe Watson described Brazier's actions as a 'horrible moment for journalism'.

Sky News has apologised profusely after one of its presenters was shown rifling through the personal belongings of a stricken passenger at the MH17 crash site.

In a live broadcast on Sunday afternoon, Sky News presenter Colin Brazier was shown picking items – including a set of keys and toothbrush – out of the opened luggage before saying: "We shouldn't really be doing this, I suppose."

The footage was met with a storm of criticism online, including media professor Joe Watson who described it as a "horrible moment for journalism" and others who accused Sky News of invading the privacy of the deceased.

BBC Sport presenter Jacqui Oatley said she was "absolutely astonished" by Brazier's actions, while BBC radio presenter Shelagh Fogarty added: "Sky!!! Get your reporter to STOP rummaging thru belongings at #mH17 crash site. "We shouldn't really be doing this" NO S**T Sherlock !! Those items are essentially sacred things now for the relatives. Just appalling."

The incident came amid concerns from air accident investigators that the MH17 crash site had been contaminated by the round-the-clock presence of armed pro-Russia separatists, locals and the international media. A coalition of investigators are expected to arrive at the site for the first time on Monday, four days after the disaster which killed all 298 people on the Malaysian Airlines aircraft when it came down near Grabovo in eastern Ukraine on Thursday.

A spokeswoman for Sky News said: "Today whilst presenting from the site of the MH17 air crash Colin Brazier reflected on the human tragedy of the event and showed audiences the content of one of the victims' bags. Colin immediately recognised that this was inappropriate and said so on air. Both Colin and Sky News apologise profusely for any offence caused."

The spokeswoman said Sky News had received "a handful" of complaints from viewers in the hours after the broadcast, which was shared hundreds of times on Twitter. Some viewers said they would take their complaints to the media regulator Ofcom for the "appalling" breach of privacy. Another Twitter user, named Shelly, said: "I have never seen something so disrespectful. Time to rethink my Sky subscription, I think."

Brazier, who was nominated for the presenter of the year award at this year's Royal Television Society Awards, later reported that he had come across scores of human remains at the site.

He said: "I've been walking around, coming across body parts all the time, many of them charred beyond recognition. Men, women and children, indeterminate frankly, you can't tell. Very often you are looking at charred spines, that's all that's left.

"There are flies. It is hot. There are stretchers lying by the roadside. They have not been used because many of the bodies were dismembered by the forces of the impact. It is a truly macabre, horrific situation. There is a degree of anarchy and lawlessness."