A piece of wreckage washed up on a beach in the Indian Ocean could be part of the doomed Malaysian Airlines jet MH370 which vanished in 2014, it has emerged.
The two-metre-long piece of wreckage, which seemed to be part of a wing, was found by people cleaning up a beach in La Reunion, east of Madagascar.
One witness said: 'It was covered in shells, so one would say it had been in the water a long time.'
French air transport officials have already opened a probe to investigate where the wreckage could have come from.
The two-metre-long section was found more than 3,800 miles away from where the missing Boeing 777 was last seen.
Xavier Tytelman, an expert in aviation security, said it could not be ruled out that the wreckage belonged to MH370, which vanished without trace in March last year.
No part of the wreckage has ever been found in one of aviation's great mysteries and Malaysian authorities in January declared that all on board were presumed dead.
The plane disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board.
Tytelman noted that local media photos showed 'incredible similarities between a #B777 flaperon and the debris found,' refering to a Boeing 777 - the type of plane that disappeared.
He also noted a reference on the wreckage: BB670.
He added: 'This code is not a plane's registration number, nor serial number. However... it's clear that this reference would allow a quick identification. In a few days, we will have a definitive answer.'
