Kualalampur: A Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 mysteriously disappeared from radar screens on March 8, 2014, becoming one of Malaysia's deadliest aviation incidents.

Ten years after the tragic incident, relatives of passengers on Sunday (Mar 3) pushed for a new search as they spoke of enduring grief and the struggle to find closure.

Authorities did not find any trace of the wreck, besides the few bits of debris that washed up on an island in the Indian Ocean.

The aircraft, which was headed from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, was carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew members and all on board were presumed dead in the still-continuing aviation mystery.

In January 2017, the official search for the missing jet was suspended and a private six-month search conducted a year later also turned up nothing.

On Sunday, about 500 relatives and their supporters gathered at a shopping centre near the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur for a "remembrance day".

They burned 239 candles, one for each lost individual on the flight. Some relatives travelled from China, where nearly two-thirds of the passengers on the crashed jet were from.

"The last 10 years have been a nonstop emotional rollercoaster for me," Grace Nathan, a 36-year-old Malaysian lawyer whose mother, Anne Daisy, 56, was on the flight, told AFP.

Speaking to the crowd, she called on the Malaysian government to conduct a new search. "MH370 is not history," she said.

Liu Shuang Fong, 67, from China's Hebei province lost her 28-year-old son Li Yan Lin, who was also a passenger on the plane.

"I demand justice for my son. Where is the plane?" said Liu, who flew to Malaysia for the event. "The search must go on," she added.

Anthony Loke, who is the transport minister, told reporters that "as far Malaysia is concerned it is committed to finding the plane... cost is not the issue".

He told relatives at the gathering that he would meet with officials from Texas-based marine exploration firm Ocean Infinity, which conducted a previous unsuccessful search to discuss a new operation.

"We are now awaiting for them to provide suitable dates and I hope to meet them soon," he said.

-B