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Debris found washed up on a beach in western Australia is being investigated to determine if it is wreckage from the missing Malaysia Airlines MH370 plane.The objects were found 10km east of Augusta, south of Perth, and handed into a police station, according to Sky News Australia.

Photographs of the debris are being assessed by the Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC), an organisation set up to help co-ordinate the Australian government’s support in the search for the missing Boeing 777.

The images have also been passed on to Malaysian authorities for analysis.

“Western Australia Police have attended a report of material washed ashore 10 kilometres east of Augusta and have secured the material,” said the JACC statement.

“The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) is examining the photographs of the material to determine whether further physical analysis is required and if there is any relevance to the search of missing flight MH370.

“ The ATSB has also provided the photographs to the Malaysian investigation team. No further information is available at this time.”

It comes as Australian prime minister Tony Abbott vowed to keep searching for the plane despite no sign of wreckage after almost seven weeks.

He admitted the search strategy may change if seabed scans taken by a US Navy drone failed to turn up a trace of plane, which vanished on March 8 with 239 people on board.

“We may well re-think the search but we will not rest until we have done everything we can to solve this mystery,” he said.
“The only way we can get to the bottom of this is to keep searching the probable impact zone until we find something or until we have searched it as thoroughly as human ingenuity allows at this time.” — Sapa