Plane wreckage containing 'many skeletons' and painted with the Malaysian flag has reportedly been found in the Philippines, prompting speculation it could be missing Flight MH370.
Police confirmed they had received reports of the discovery in thick jungle on the remote island of Sugbai in Tawi-Tawi province.
An audio technician, Jamil Omar, contacted police in Malaysia to say his aunt, Siti Kayam, had stumbled upon the wreckage while she and others were hunting for birds.
Police commissioner Jalaludin Abdul Rahman, based in neighbouring Borneo, said the woman claimed she climbed into the smashed fuselage and saw skeletons.
He said: 'Mr Jamil claimed his aunt had entered the aircraft wreckage, which had many human skeletons and bones.
'She also found a Malaysian flag measuring 70 inches long and 35 inches wide.'
According to a local media reportL 'There was a skeleton still in the pilot's seat. The pilot had his safety belt on and the communication gear attached to his head and ears.'
Speculation grew that the wreckage could belong to the missing Malaysia Airlines flight that disappeared in March last year with 239 people on board.
Police remain reserved about the report, mindful of confirmation by French authorities that part of an aircraft wing – a flaperon – found on the island of Reunion in the west of the Indian Ocean earlier this year had been confirmed as being from MH370.
It would be unlikely that the flaperon had been able to drift from the Philippines to Reunion, given that land – Borneo, the Malaysian mainland and parts of Indonesia – would be in the way.
Mr Jamil, who produced his identity card to police, said his aunt had not been able to provide the information earlier because there were no facilities on the island.
'So my aunt came to see me,' Mr Jamil told the police.
In his official report, Mr Omar said the nephew and his friends went into the wreckage 'and found many human skeletons and bones,' a report on freemalaysiatoday.com stated.
The site added: 'There was a skeleton still in the pilot's seat. The pilot had his safety belt on and the communication gear attached to his head and ears.'
A naval task force which landed on the Philippines island reported later today that initial checks with villagers on the island had failed to confirm the report.
Captain Giovanni Bacordo, commander of Naval Task Force 61, said a team of men on a gunboat had been sent to investigate the report but could not add any new information.
'We interviewed the people at the Sugbai Island (also known as Sugbay) - the fishermen - but they have no knowledge of it,' said Captain Bacordo.
'If we are too check thoroughly it has to be a deliberate effort. It's a big island, 3.5 miles long, but we did an initial investigation with the populace,' he told Philippines media.
Further investigations are to involve Mr Omar, 46, and his his aunt.
An officer admitted that if it was a hoax call, it did not make sense that Mr Omar should have given police his name and that of his aunt.
