MH370? Suspected plane wreckage washes up in Thailand sparking missing jet speculation

Thai media speculates that 3m long piece of curved metal could belong to vanished plane

Until now only one piece of wreckage has been recovered of the plane, in July last year (Getty)

A piece of suspected plane wreckage has washed up on a beach in Thailand, prompting speculation that it may have come from the missing jet MH370.

A large piece of curved metal, crusted with barnacles, was found by villagers in the Nakhon Si Thammarat province, Reuters reported.

MH370 disappeared while flying from Kuala Lumpa to Beijing in March 2014 with 239 people aboard.

So far, only one piece of wreckage has been recovered of the plane, washing up on Reunion island in July 2015.

Tanyapat Patthikongpan, head of Pak Phanang district, told Reuters: "Villagers found the wreckage, measuring about 2 meters wide and 3 meters long (6.6 by 9.8 feet)."

There has been no official confirmation yet that the wreckage belongs to a plane.

Nakhon Si Thammarat is on the east coast of Thailand, facing the Gulf of Thailand and the South China Sea. Reunion is in the Indian Ocean, which is on the opposite side of the country and thousands of miles away.

But the find has fuelled speculation in the Thai media that the debris could belong to MH370.

Investigators believe someone may have deliberately switched off MH370's transponder before diverting it thousands of miles off course. Most of the passengers were Chinese. Beijing told Reuters it is following developments closely.