A senator was among the 192 Dutch nationals killed in the MH17 crash which was believed to have been shot down in eastern Ukraine on Thursday.

Senator Willem Witteveen, from thr PvdA Labour Party, was killed along with his wife and child, reported the NL Times in the Netherlands.

“Prof Dr W.J. Witteveen was a member of the PvdA faction of the First Chamber since January 15, 2013,” the First Chamber wrote on its website. Witteveen had previously also served from June 8, 1999 to June 12, 2007.

The media statement was released after House Speaker, Ankie Broekers-Knol was informed of the incident by the Home Minister.

“She was very saddened by the news,” the statement said.

Witteveen, 62, was once a law professor at the Tilburg University. His father served as the Finance Minister of the Netherlands from 1967 to 1971 and later was elected as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief from 1973 to 1978.

Flight MH17 was carrying 298 passengers and crew, with the majority of them Dutch nationals.

The Boeing 777 aircraft, the same model with that of Flight MH370 which went missing on March 8, was believed to have been shot down by pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine.

The rebels, however, denied the allegations and instead claimed that the Ukrainian army was responsible for shooting the aircraft.