Relatives frustrated by lack of progress

Passengers' and their nationalities: Chinese 154  Malaysia 38 India 5 Indonesia 7 Australia 6 France 4 USA 3  New Zealand 2 Ukraine 2 Canada 2 Russia 1 Italy 1 Netherlands 1 Austria 1

Family members of passengers on missing flight MH370 expressed their frustration with the lack of information and also criticized the spokespeople during the daily briefing held by Malaysia Airlines in Beijing on Wednesday although they were persuaded to stop a hunger strike launched a day earlier.

A total of 464 relatives of missing passengers are at Beijing's Metropark Lido Hotel, awaiting news of the missing flight.  

On Tuesday morning, they had written a message on a white board saying: "We demand the truth and please join the hunger strike of your own free will."

But on Wednesday the white board was removed and the family members had stopped the hunger strike after several representatives of relatives and volunteer lawyers persuaded those who were refusing food - especially the older ones – to abandon the idea.

However, family members attending the briefing demanded that higher-level authorities should communicate with them because they are not satisfied with the daily briefings held by Malaysia Airlines.

A spokesman of the airline, surnamed Song, said that he would collect the questions of the relatives and reply to them soon.

He also said that family members could express their concerns to the Malaysian ambassador to China by sending an e-mail to: mwbjing@kln.gov.my.