Malaysia identifies passenger who stole passport

Malaysian police have said they have identified one of the passengers who boarded the missing flight MH370 using a stolen passport.

Police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said the man was a non-Malay man who investigators identified through airport surveillance cameras.

Italian Luigi Maraldi had his passport stolen and used by a passenger to board flight MH370 (Source: AFP)

"That's all we can reveal," Khalid told AFP. "We will continue to investigate how they (the two people using stolen passports) entered Malaysia."

"I can confirm that he is not Malaysian, but I cannot reveal which country he is from," Mr Khalid said at Kajang police headquarters.

When asked if the two were on immigration records, police chief Khalid said police were investigating the matter.

"This man is not from Xinjiang, China. We have not confirmed the claim of a Chinese guerrilla group causing the disappearance of the plane," he said, adding that his staff were investigating from all angles.

He added that Malaysian police have not yet considered the plane's disappearance to be related to terrorism.

"Let us investigate this matter thoroughly," he said, asking the public not to speculate further on the matter.

Earlier, the country's Interior Ministry said that at least two passengers using stolen passports, one Italian and one Austrian, both had identifying characteristics of "people with Asian facial features."

Reports that at least two passengers used stolen European passports to board the mysteriously missing flight have led to speculation that the Boeing 777-200 may have been hijacked.

Malaysia has also investigated the incident and asked intelligence and security agencies of many countries to assist.

On March 10, Japan's Kyodo news agency also quoted a statement from the head of Taiwan's intelligence agency (China) saying that the agency had received information about a possible terrorist attack targeting the airport and subway system in China's capital Beijing four days before the plane went missing.

Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 took off from Kuala Lumpur and was scheduled to land in Beijing on the morning of March 8 when it lost signal at 2:40 a.m. local time in Vietnam's flight reporting area.

There were a total of 227 passengers and 12 crew members on board. The passengers were of 14 nationalities, including 153 Chinese./.

According to VNA