· Suspicious objects found

An RAAF Orion aircraft has found objects possibly connected with missing plane MH 370, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority says.

The objects were spotted in the search area about 2500 kilometres south-west of Perth by the RAAF Orion with the crew seeing two objects – the first being grey or green and the second an orange rectangle.

These objects are different from objects reported by the Chinese Ilyushin IL- 76 aircraft , albeit those reported by the Chinese were also within today’s search area.

HMAS Success is currently in the area and attempting to find the objects.

According to AMSA, a US Navy Poseidon plane tried to relocate the objects reported by the Chinese aircraft but were unable to do so.

Further searches are planned by the Poseidon, while a second RAAF P3 and a Japanese P3 are en route to their assigned search areas.

Malaysian transport minister Hishammuddin Hussein said Prime Minister Abbott had phoned his Malaysian counterpart to report the findings.

Mr Hishammuddin said they could know more about these objects “in the next few hours” or by tomorrow morning, noting more aircraft were combing the area and more ships were on their way.