The Australian Transport Safety Bureau said in a statement on Wednesday that the search for the wreckage of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 had confirmed the shipwreck find with high-resolution sonar images.

The Western Australian Museum advised that the wreck was likely to be a steel or iron ship dating from the turn of the 19th century.

The bureau, which is running the search, announced in May last year it had found the wreck of a cargo ship built in the mid-to-late 19th century.

Flight 370 vanished in March 2014 after mysteriously flying off course during a flight from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia to Beijing.