Penang Gerakan Youth urged the police to act against Tanjong Member of Parliament's wife, Yuki Tan, who described Malaysia as a rotten and scary country following the alleged shooting down of the Malaysia Airlines (MAS) Flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine.

Tan had shared the link of an online news portal story with her comment: "Malaysia is a scary country." and later posted a message saying "What kind of rotten country is this!!!"

At a time when the whole country is mourning a second tragedy involving the national carrier which claimed 298 lives, including 15 crew of the flight, her insensitive posting is sad, said Batu Kawan Youth Chief Puspanathan Jayaveloo.

"Although she has apologised, we believe the police can take action for her statement because if the police can act against a road bully who later apologised to a senior citizen, we don't see any reason why a similar action cannot be taken against Yuki Tan," he said in a statement Sunday.

Puspanathan, who lodged a report at the Bandar Perda police station in Seberang Perai Tengah Sunday said, as the wife of a Parliamentarian who had won the Tanjong seat by almost a 29,000-vote majority, Tan should not issue such insensitive statements.

The MAS flight, MH17, was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it went down in Ukraine. It was carrying 298 people – 283 passengers and 15 crew.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had said Ukrainian authorities believed the Boeing-777 was shot down.

MH17 had left Amsterdam at 12.15pm (Netherlands time) Thursday and was to have arrived in Kuala Lumpur at 6.10am (Malaysian time) Friday.

Besides Malaysians, nationals from the Netherlands, Australia, Indonesia, the United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium, the Philippines, Canada and New Zealand were among the 298 passengers and crew on board.