UPDATE 1-China rules out hijack, attack by Chinese passengers on Malaysian jet

(Adds details, quotes)

BEIJING, March 18 (Reuters) - There is no evidence Chinese passengers were involved in a hijack or terror attack on a Malaysia Airlines MASM.KL flight that vanished 10 days ago, state media quoted China's ambassador to Malaysia as saying on Tuesday.

Ambassador Huang Huikang told Chinese reporters that Beijing

had carried out a detailed investigation of the Chinese passengers and could rule out their involvement, state television said on one of its official microblogs.

Huang said a lot of the information involved criminal matters which was "not suitable to publicise" but gave no other details.

"The probe into the incident's cause is not suitable to be conducted in a high-profile way," he said.

No trace of flight MH370 has been found since it vanished soon after taking off from Kuala Lumpur bound for Beijing early on March 8 with 239 passengers and crew on board.

About two-thirds of the passengers were Chinese.

Huang said there were multiple reasons for the confusion and rumours about what had happened to the aircraft, including Malaysia's "lack of experience".

A search of unprecedented scale involving 26 countries is under way, covering an area stretching from the shores of the Caspian Sea in the north to deep in the southern Indian Ocean.

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(Reporting by Li Hui and Ben Blanchard; Editing by Paul Tait)

((ben.blanchard@thomsonreuters.com)(+86 10 6627 1201)(Reuters Messaging: ben.blanchard.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))

Keywords: MALAYSIA AIRLINES/CHINA