SAINT-ANDRE: Part of a bag was found on Thursday on the French island of La Reunion not far from plane debris which has fuelled speculation it may be from missing flight MH370.

“The piece of luggage was here since Wednesday but nobody really paid attention,” said Johnny Begue, a member of a local clean-up association who found the long piece of wreckage believed to be a part of a plane wing. The fragment of material includes the closed zip. Local air transport police who have been studying the plane debris also picked up the piece of luggage on Thursday.

The Malaysia Airlines plane — a Boeing 777 — was travelling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing when it mysteriously vanished on March 8 last year with 239 people on board. Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said the debris, believed to be a part of a wing, was “very likely to be from a Boeing 777 but we need to verify whether it is from flight MH370”.

He said the wing component was being sent to Toulouse in southwestern France for further examination.

READ ALSO

• ‘A weird thing on the shore’ sparks MH370 speculation