DHAKA: China`s state media says Vietnamese authorities have detected signals from the missing Malaysia Airlines plane.

The Xinhua News Agency, citing a local Vietnamese media report, says a Vietnamese search and rescue official reported that the signals have been detected from the plane from about 220 kilometers (120 miles) southwest of Vietnam`s southernmost coastal province of Ca Mau.

Malaysia Airlines says its Boeing 777-200 carrying 239 people lost contact over the South China Sea early Saturday morning on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

The plane lost communication two hours into the flight in Vietnam`s airspace at 1:20 a.m. (18:20 GMT Friday), China`s state news agency said. The radar signal also was lost, Xinhua reported.

On the other hand, Malaysia Airlines said there has been speculation that the aircraft has landed at Nanming District of Guizhou in China. We are working to verify the authenticity of the report and others.

The flight was carrying a total number of 239 passengers and crew – comprising 227 passengers (including 2 infants), 12 crew members.

The passengers were of 14 different nationalities include-- 153 Chinese inclining an infant, 38 Malaysians, 12 Indonesians, 6 Australian,  3 France nationals, 3 pax plus 1 infant of United States of America, 2 New Zealand nationals, 2 Ukrainians ,  2 Canadians, one Russian,  one Italian,  one Taiwanese,  one Netherlands national and one Austrian.

Source: NDTV, malaysiaairlines.com

BDST:1053 HRS, MAR 08, 2014