MH370: France to further expand search area

Paris: The search for more debris of the missing Malaysian Airline flight MH370 will be further expanded and move towards the southern zones of the Reunion island, the media reported on Thursday quoting French authorities.

A statement released by the administrator of the Reunion Island Dominique Sorain said: "There was no any significant discovery, six days after the launch of a major search operation in the eastern part of the Island."

"Due to the absence of any significant discovery in this area, the search, especially aerial and underwater, will on Thursday move to the periphery of the initial zone, especially in the south, where we suspect there could be more debris," the statement said.

On August 7, Sorain said the search would cover Reunion's eastern zone up to a search zone under the control of Mauritius authorities.

Since Monday, 42 members of the search teams have spent over 45 hours carrying out land searches on shores of Reunion's northeast zone, while aerial and underwater searches have lasted for 15 hours.

The administrator said search operations will continue until next week.

Flight MH370 disappeared on March 8, 2014 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with a total of 239 people on board.

On August 6, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak announced that according to experts, a flaperon found off the Reunion Island last month was from the ill-fated aircraft.