Chinese warship in search area looking for suspicious debris

A Chinese warship has arrived in waters near the place where suspicious objects possibly related to the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 were spotted by Chinese aircraft, but made no findings yet as of late Saturday.  [Special coverage]

A helicopter taking off from the warship Jingangshan spent two hours in the air looking for the three objects spotted by a Chinese military aircraft earlier on Saturday.

However, there is no confirmation yet of Saturday's sighting, according to navy officials aboard the ship.

A Chinese Ilyushin IL-76 aircraft reported spotting three floating items, which are white, red and orange respectively, a Xinhua reporter aboard the military plane said.

A marker was dropped and the Chinese crew have informed Australian authorities of the new findings.

Australian maritime rescue authorities said search activities for the missing jet have concluded for Saturday, involving eight aircraft and four ships, covering about 252,000 square km in the new search area in the Indian Ocean.

Two ships, operating in the area, retrieved a number of objects from the ocean, but rescuers ruled out the possibility of them being related to the MH370, added the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA).

Meanwhile, a number of items have also been spotted by Australian aircraft in a different part of the search area, but authorities cautioned they cannot be verified as being from MH370 until they are relocated and recovered by ships.

The search will resume on Sunday morning, AMSA said.