☰

Global

China investigating new images of possible debris - Malaysia minister


    KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Chinese satellites have spotted objects floating in the southern search area for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane that could be debris and has sent ships to investigate, Malaysia said on Saturday.

    "Chinese ships have been dispatched to the area. Beijing is expected to make an announcement in a few hours," Malaysian Defence Minister and acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told reporters.

    One of the objects was very large, measuring 22.5 metres (74 feet) by 13 metres (42 feet), the ministry said in a statement, correcting the minister's earlier statistics of 22 metres by 30 metres.

    "This information was received by phone during the press conference, and was initially misheard," the ministry said.

    (Adds Malaysian Transport Ministry correcting size of possible debris to 22.5 metres by 13 metres.)

    (Reporting by Siva Govindasamy and A.Ananthalakshmi; writing by Stuart Grudgings; Editing by Nick Macfie)