Relatives accuse Malaysia of deception over missing jet

Angry relatives of Chinese passengers onboard the ill-fated Malaysian airliner clashed with the police outside the Malaysian embassy in

Beijing on Tuesday, accusing the government of "deception" even as the search for the wreckage of the jet has been shifted to the southern tip of the Indian Ocean after getting new data.

The Chinese government, apparently not satisfied with Malaysia's response to the tragedy, demanded that the country provide satellite date it used to conclude that the plane crashed in the southern Indian Ocean with 239 people, including 154 Chinese nationals on board.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, currently touring Europe, said a special envoy is being sent to Kuala Lumpur to deal with the matter of the missing plane.

In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian Defence Minister Hishamuddin Hussein said that the latest analysis of satellite data included a final electronic signal that was still being investigated.

Even with other communications shut down, the plane sent an automatic signal called a "ping" or a "handshake" every hour to the Inmarsat satellite.

The pings did not show the jet's location, speed or heading, but an initial analysis showed the last ping came from a position along one of two vast arcs north and south from the Malaysian Peninsula.

"There is evidence of a partial handshake between the aircraft and ground station at 00:19 UTC (GMT)," Hishammuddin said.

"At this time, this transmission is not understood and is subject to further ongoing work."

In Beijing, grief-stricken families and friends marched to the embassy protesting the way Malaysia handled the probe and not keeping them posted on developments on the Beijing-bound Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 that went missing on March 8.

Protesters hurled water bottles at the embassy and tried to storm the building, eyewitnesses said.

Holding placards, they shouted, "The Malaysian government has deceived us" and "Malaysia, return our relatives."

Image: A family member of a passenger aboard Malaysia Airlines MH370 cries as he marches along a street with other relatives during a protest, near Lido Hotel in Beijing

Photograph: Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters