'Malay version of Koran' found on Reunion as France sends planes to join MH370 search
France sends additional patrols and relatives demand to be flown to the site as more debris washed up
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11:31AM BST 07 Aug 2015
6 CommentsFrance ramped up the search for wreckage from MH370 on Friday, with extra helicopters and a plane patrolling the skies above Reunion, and boats surveying the seas.
"On the orders of the president of the Republic and the prime minister, it has been decided to deploy additional maritime and aerial forces in order to detect further debris around Reunion," the ministries of defence, transport and overseas territories said in a joint statement.
The prefet of Reunion will coordinate the operation, the statement said - which will be carried out by the Armed Forces of the Southern Indian Ocean Zone.
Local gendarmes will also carry out additional foot patrols.
On Thursday the mayor of Saint Andre - where the debris washed up on July 29 - said that a "detailed search" of the beach would be carried out from Monday.
And Reunion islanders were continuing to hand in debris from the beach on the east coast. On Friday a laminated copy of the Koran, written in jawi - an Arabic script used in Brunei and Malaysia - was the latest item to be handed in.
"It could have come from Koranic texts from Malaysia, Indonesia or Brunei - where the majority of the people are Muslims," said a Malaysian journalist,asked by local reporters about the plastic book. "It could also come from Mondanao in the Philippines. But in reality it could have come from any Muslim country."
The mushrooming amount of debris being handed in on Reunion increased the clamour among relatives of the 239 passengers to be taken to the island. None of the new debris appeared to have come from MH370, a spokesman for Warren Truss, Australia's deputy prime minister, said.
Yet the relatives were growing increasingly agitated.
"I want to see if my son's luggage is there," said Lu Zhanzhong, whose son was on the plane. Protesting in Beijing, he said: "We want to go to the island and see the truth."
Hu Xiufang, who had three relatives on board the plane said: "Our demand is to go to Reunion island and look for ourselves".
"All the relatives want to go there," she said. "Malaysia is the country responsible and they should obtain the relevant documents," he added.
And Zhang Jianyi, who had a daughter and granddaughter on the plane, added: "We will all go there together. That's what international agreements require. And Malaysia is the relevant country to arrange it."
Relatives also expressed continuing frustration with Malaysian officials.
"The Malaysian government have refused to send anyone to meet us," said Jiang Hui, whose mother was on the flight. "I don't know what the Malaysian government fears, or what it's trying to cover up."
The mayor of Saint Andre said any relatives wanting to visit “will be welcomed and treated as honoured guests in our town.”
“It may help relieve some of the terrible pain of these hundreds of families.”
He said that the town was proposing the creation of a memorial to those who disappeare