BIRKDALE diva Mirusia Louwerse, on tour in Holland, has spoken of the sentiment in the Dutch capital after 154 Dutch citizens died when a Malaysian Airlines flight crashed in Russian-held territory in the Ukraine on Friday morning.
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It was the second biggest tragedy for The Netherlands involving a passenger aircraft in modern times.
The 29-year-old soprano, in Maastricht for a series of concerts with maestro Andre Rieu, said she had friends on flights from Singapore to The Netherlands at the same time as the ill-fated Malaysian Airlines flight MH17.
She said people were tense in The Netherlands but were staying positive that the tragedy would not spark a global war.
"Most planes up until Friday were flying the same flight path over Donetsk. Even my friends who arrived the day before from Australia with Singapore Airlines flew over Ukraine and were even surprised about that considering there is a war going on," she said.
"If this attack has been an accident by the rebels shooting down the wrong plane, then there is hope for Europe to not be involved in this war between Ukraine and Russia.
"But innocents were murdered and that doesn't fall very lightly over here," the songstress said.
Mirusia, who is due to fly back to Australia from Amsterdam in 10 days, has been charming audiences in The Netherlands for the past three weeks.