THE body of one-time East Lancashire journalist Glenn Thomas who was killed in the Malaysia Airlines crash in the Ukraine has been formally identified, the Foreign Office has confirmed.

The remains of the 49-year-old, one of 298 people killed when the Flight MH17 was reportedly shot down by a missile in Ukraine in July, are being returned to his family in Blackpool for burial.

Mr Thomas had worked at Granada’s East Lancashire bureau in Daisyfield, Blackburn for a couple of years in the 1990s.

He worked on the Blackpool Citizen newspaper, a sister publication of the Lancashire Telegraph, in the late 80s and early 90s, before his move to Blackburn.