Malaysia Airlines says 152 Chinese, 38 Malaysians on missing flight

KUALA LUMPUR, March 8 (Reuters) - A missing Malaysia Airlines MASM.KL flight was carrying 152 Chinese, 38 Malaysians, 12 Indonesians and seven Australians among the 227 passengers, the airline said on Saturday.

There were also three U.S. citizens, three from France, two passengers each from New Zealand, Ukraine, and Canada, and one each from Italy, Taiwan, the Netherlands and Austria, the airline said in a statement. There were also two infants. Twelve crew members were also on the flight.

Flight MH 370 operating a Boeing B777-200 aircraft left Kuala Lumpur at 12.21 a.m. (1621 GMT Friday) and had been expected to land in Beijing at 6.30 a.m. (2230 GMT) the same day.

(Reporting by Anuradha Raghu; writing by Stuart Grudgings; Editing by Nick Macfie)

((paul.tait@thomsonreuters.com)(+612 9373 1821)(Reuters Messaging: paul.tait.reuters.com@reuters.net))

Keywords: MALAYSIA AIRLINES/PASSENGERS