SYDNEY - Evidence at the MH17 crash site has been widely tampered with as part of an apparent cover-up attempt, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said Tuesday. "After the crime, comes the cover-up. What we have seen is evidence tampering on an industrial scale and obviously that has to stop," Abbott told reporters in Canberra. "It's not an accident. It's a crime."

Abbott added that Russian President Vladimir Putin had so far been "as good as his word" by approving a U.N. Security Council resolution guaranteeing safe access to international monitors trying to secure the scene. Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was shot down last week in eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 passengers and crew on board. Twenty eight Australians were killed. On Monday, Abbott accused the pro-Russia rebels who were controlling acccess to the crash site of leaving it looking more like a "garden clean-up" than a forensic investigation.

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A team of forensic investigators finally make it to the #MH17 crash site... 'We're just getting started'. https://t.co/IILn9iq0D5 -Keir Simmons (@KeirSimmons) July 21, 2014

- Reuters