KUALA LUMPUR, March 26 ― Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi blamed the Chinese media today for fueling the anger of families in Beijing towards the Malaysian authorities over the MH370 tragedy.

The Home Minister said it was the "Chinese language papers" and "print media’s” coverage of the crisis that led to such criticism of Malaysia but stopped short of specifying if he was referring to the local press or news organisations from China.

“The writings of most of these Chinese-language papers have played on sentiments and have fueled the anger of relatives of the passengers from China who were on board MH370,” Ahmad Zahid said during his winding up speech on the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong's royal address in Parliament here.

He said the attacks against the Malaysian government was grossly unfair, and stressed that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak was doing everything humanly possible to “solve the problem.”

“It has to be pointed out that this incident was an accident, and no one ever wanted this to happen.

“But what is unfortunate is that these newspapers have manipulated and played on sentiments causing the relatives to become angry, especially those in Beijing,” the minister added.

The irate families have hurled every accusation possible at the Malaysian authorities, from claims that its agencies had acted too slowly when handling the crisis or that they withheld key information to help the probe, to labeling them “murderers” outright.

The Chinese accounted for a majority of those aboard the ill-fated jetliner ― 153 of the 239 people ― that left Malaysian shores at 12.41am on March 8 towards Beijing.

Some of the Chinese families staged a protest outside the Malaysian embassy in Beijing yesterday.

Malaysia had concluded on Monday, 17 days after MH370 disappeared from sight, that the aircraft had “ended” its journey in the southern Indian Ocean, a wild part of the ocean hardly ever traversed by ships.

The announcement was made by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak who was careful not to mention outright that all the 239 lives aboard the aircraft were lost.

But in Beijing where Malaysia Airlines was handling the Chinese families, a different message was sent.

“Malaysia Airlines deeply regrets that we have to assume beyond any reasonable doubt that MH370 has been lost and that none of those on board survived,” the national carrier said in a text message to the families, which was later criticised.

Wails, sobs and angry shouts followed the briefing at the Lido Hotel in Beijing when distraught family members reacted to the news they had been dreading to hear. Some lashed out immediately at Malaysia. Some were ferried away on stretchers when the news proved too much to handle.

Today, two days on, many Chinese families have refused to believe their loved ones had gone down with MH370.

Apart from the 153 Chinese, there were 50 Malaysians on board, and 12 other nationalities, including those from Australia, Ukraine, Indonesia, France, the US, Iran, Russia, Taiwan, New Zealand, Canada, India and the Netherlands.