The search for the Malaysian airliner that disappeared three years ago with 239 on board has been suspended.

In a statement, Australia, Malaysia and China said the decision was taken with "sadness" after a fruitless search in more than 120,000 sq km (46,300 miles) of the Indian Ocean.

They remained hopeful new information would enable the aircraft to be found in the future.

The Boeing 777 vanished while flying to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur in 2014.

So far only seven of the 20 pieces of recovered debris have been identified as definitely or highly likely to be from the missing plane.

A report in November 2016 said the plane probably made a "high and increasing rate of descent" into the Indian Ocean.

"Whilst combined scientific studies have continued to refine areas of probability, to date no new information has been discovered to determine the specific location of the aircraft," Tuesday's joint statement said.

"We remain hopeful that new information will come to light and that at some point in the future the aircraft will be located."