A Chinese satellite has spotted a large object floating in the same south Indian Ocean area that has become a focal point in the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane.
A Chinese defence agency said on its website that satellite pictures taken around noon on Tuesday shows an object measuring 22.5 metres by 13 metres and located about 120km southwest of where Australia two days earlier captured images of two indistinct objects, one of them estimated at 24 metres long.
Officials say these could be related to the flight that disappeared March 8.
Since Australia reported its satellite sightings on Thursday, an increasingly intensifying effort has been undertaken to comb the waters about 2500km off the coast of Perth.
The report of the Chinese image comes amid concerns that any objects seen by satellite days ago may already have sunk, but it is still likely to give further impetus to the multi-national search in the so-called southern corridor that is thought to be a likely path taken by Flight 370, though it had flown from Kuala Lumpur en route to Beijing.
The emergence of the new photo was announced in Kuala Lumpur by Malaysian Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein, who was handed a note during his daily press briefing on the international search for MH370 which vanished two weeks ago.
A visibly animated Hishammuddin wrapped up his briefing early "to follow this lead".
Hishammuddin said that China would be dispatching ships to the area of the object sightings.
In Beijing, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said more analysis was needed to determine if the object was related to the missing plane.
"China hopes that these data will be helpful for searching and rescuing efforts," said Hong, according to Xinhua news agency.
China already has five ships in the southern corridor and is sending an additional two there, Hishammuddin said in a statement during a daily press briefing, which was cut short by the Chinese satellite news.
He also said two Chinese aircraft capable of hauling heavy items were to arrive on Saturday in Perth to join Australia, the US and New Zealand in the search operations.
Two merchant ships and an Australian navy vessel also are in the search area, which encompasses around 36,000 square kilometres.
Japanese planes will arrive on Sunday, and two Indian aircraft that landed in Malaysia on Friday night also will assist with the search in the southern area, Hishammuddin said.
In addition, a British vessel equipped with underwater search sensors is en route, he said.
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