Debris 'very likely' part of MH370

Debris found on the Indian Ocean island of Reunion is "very likely" to be from the missing flight MH370, a top Australian official told the BBC yesterday.

Martin Dolan, who heads Australia's search efforts, also said the operation was continuing "in the right place" in the southern part of the ocean.

The wreckage, said to be a wing part, is to be flown to France for analysis.

The Malaysia Airlines flight - a Boeing 777 travelling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing - vanished in March 2014. There were 239 passengers and crew on board the plane when it went missing.

The debris washed up on Reunion island on Wednesday, some 4,000km from the area where MH370 is thought to have gone down.

Dolan, who heads the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, told the BBC that he was "increasingly confident that the wreckage... is associated with a 777 aircraft".

However, Dolan also said the discovery of debris would not help pinpoint where the plane went down.