A shipwreck has been found on the floor of the southern Indian Ocean in the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, which vanished on March 8, 2014, with 239 people on board.

The Australian Joint Agency Coordination Centre said yesterday that the discovery was made with the aid of an autonomous underwater vehicle.

According to experts from the Shipwreck Galleries of the Western Australian Museum in Freemantle, the wreck is likely to be a steel or iron vessel from the 19th century.

At least one other shipwreck has previously been found in the search for MH370. Australia, Malaysia and China agreed on a search area in the ocean comprising some 120,000 sq km, and more than 80,000 sq km has been examined.