DHAKA: The two passengers holding fake passports aboard the Malaysian flight MH370 were Iranians heading to Europe with the aim of seeking asylum.

The BBC Persian service said quoting a source who met them in Malaysia, reports The Straits Times.

The Malaysian authorities on Monday identified one of them as 19-year-old Iranian Pouria Nour Mohammad Mehrdad.

An anonymous Iranian told the Persian service on Monday in a phone interview from Malaysia that he met one of the two passengers, whom he knew from high school, when he arrived in the South-east Asian country.

‘I met him the first day he arrived in Malaysia... he said he was staying for three to four days but was eventually going to Germany, that his final destination was Frankfurt in Germany. He stayed for almost a week in Malaysia,’ he said.

BDST: 1650 HRS, MAR 11, 2014