Malaysia Airlines says wreckage found on Indian Ocean island comes from same model aircraft as MH370 which disappeared 16 months ago.

Malaysia Airlines has confirmed that a piece of wreckage found on the Indian Ocean island of Réunion is from a Boeing 777 and that investigators are “moving close to solving the mystery of MH370”, the Malaysian government says.

Abdul Aziz Kaprawi, the deputy transport minister, said the 2-metre barnacle-covered chunk of aircraft could be “the convincing evidence that MH370 went down in the Indian Ocean”.

Martin Dolan, the Australian man leading the search, was the first high-level official to say that the debris, known as a flaperon, was likely to have come from the missing jet, amid hopes it was the first physical evidence from the disappearance of the Malaysia Airlines jet 16 months ago.

The chief commissioner of the Australian transport safety bureau said earlier that if the wing piece was from a 777, then MH370 was the only known possible source. Authorities were “increasingly confident” the debris came from MH370, Dolan said.

“We are still working with our French and Malaysian colleagues to analyse all the information so we don’t have certainty yet, but we hope that within the next little while we’ll be able to get to that level of confidence. We’re hoping within the next 24 hours.”

The wing component bears the part number “657 BB”, according to photos of the debris. Abdul Aziz said: “From the part number, it is confirmed that it is from a Boeing 777 aircraft. This information is from MAS (Malaysia Airlines). They have informed me.”

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