PHU QUOC ISLAND, March 12 — Vietnamese authorities froze search and rescue activities for the missing Malaysia Airlines (MAS) Flight MH370 today, after reports arose that the plane was last spotted over the Straits of Malacca in Malaysia.

Vietnam’s deputy transport minister Pham Quy Tieu also complained today that a Malaysian official with whom Vietnam is liaising, was not providing sufficient information.

He did not, however, identify the person.

“We are temporarily suspending search and rescue activities, although there will still be a few planes going out,” Pham told reporters here today.

He said that Vietnam has sent two requests to Malaysia to clarify the media reports.

Reports citing an unnamed military source as saying MH370 was tracked by the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) to a location in the Straits of Malacca threw search efforts into disarray today, with rescuers facing the prospect that they may have spent four days looking in the wrong ocean.

But RMAF chief General Tan Sri Rodzali Daud has now denied that its radar last observed the plane with 239 people onboard over the Straits of Malacca — hundreds of kilometres from the south of Tho Chu island, in Vietnam where it was last registered by ground controllers on March 8.

Instead, he maintains that the air force saw indications that MH370 attempted a turnaround prior to its disappearance.

But Malaysia also expanded the search to now include the Andaman Sea, further northwest of existing efforts in the Straits, adding to the confusion.

Despite the massive airborne and naval search undertaken by 10 nations scouring the waters from the South China Sea to the Straits of Malacca, no trace of the 140-tonne Boeing 777 has been found going into the fifth days since it disappeared from the radar.

The waters south of Tho Chu island is the site that has yielded the most sightings of “debris” from the plane, although all later proved to be false alarms.

On Sunday, an oil slick was spotted that search teams believed were from the Boeing 777, but later tests revealed this to be from bunkering oil.

Yesterday, Pham said that he feared the worst after a four-day search yielded no trace of the jetliner.

Out of the 239 people onboard the missing plane, 50, including the crew, were Malaysians.