DHAKA: A Chinese ship is scouring a new area of the Indian Ocean for "objects" spotted in the hunt for the missing Malaysia Airlines jet, Australia says.

The vessel has been at the scene trying to retrieve the items since first light, according to the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (Amsa) says, report the BBC.

Aircraft are also travelling to the new search area, about 1,100km (700 miles) north-east of the previous zone.

The Beijing-bound airliner disappeared on 8 March with 239 people on board.

Five search planes spotted multiple objects of various colours on Friday.

A Royal New Zealand Air Force Orion first spotted "a number of objects white or light in colour and a fishing buoy", Amsa said.
Continue reading the main story    

An Australian plane then went to relocate the items and spotted "two blue/grey rectangular objects", and three other planes reported similar sightings.

Investigators will not know whether the objects are connected to the missing plane until they have been recovered by ships,

The Chinese patrol ship Haixun 01 was deployed to locate the objects early on Saturday, and eight aircraft would also be taking part in the day`s operation, Amsa said.

Bad weather has hampered the search efforts in recent days.

Saturday`s conditions are expected to be favourable initially but to deteriorate later in the day.

BDST: 0840 HRS, MAR 29, 2014