The families of 154 Chinese passengers on board the missing MH370 flight still insist their loved ones are being held against their will somewhere - and they are now offering 'forgiveness' to their captors if the 'prisoners' are released.

In a statement issued in Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian city that the missing Boeing 777 aircraft took off from nearly two years ago, the families said they believed their relatives were being held at an undisclosed location 'for unknown reasons'.

They also said they did not believe the wing part found on the French island of Reunion last year was from the missing Malaysia Airlines jet - and they want the search operations to be broadened and continued beyond the scheduled date in June that has been set for the hunt to end.

Tormented: A Chinese relative of a missing passenger on Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 weeps outside the main gate of the Lama Temple in Beijing, China, in June last year. The families of 154 Chinese passengers on board the Boeing 777 still insist their loved ones are being held against their will somewhere

In denial: They also said they did not believe the wing part found on the French island of Reunion last year was from the missing Malaysia Airlines jet - and they want the search operations to be broadened and continued beyond the scheduled date in June that has been set for the hunt to end

In a joint statement, they said: 'We believe our loved ones may still be alive and are being held at an undisclosed location for unknown reasons.

'In the absence of proof to the contrary, we believe it is possible the missing may still be be alive.

'If this is so, we would willingly grant to the perpetrators amnesty in return for the release of the missing.'

Although French officials have confirmed that the wing part - a flaperon - found on Reunion last July is from MH370, the families said they did not believe the official finding, which suggests that the aircraft broke up when crashing into the southern Indian Ocean.

'We do not believe any of the series of official statements starting from March 24, 2014, up to and including that of September 3, 2015,' said the families.

'There is no real proof justifying any of these statements.'

Mystery: A total of 239 passengers and crew were on board the Boeing 777 when it disappeared from radar an hour after taking off on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014

The families issued their comments as a search continues in the southern Indian Ocean, south west of the Australian coastline, based on 'handshake' readings from the jet which were picked up by satellites.

They have sent their statement to officials in Australia, Canada, China, France, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Russia, Taiwan, Ukraine and the United States, whose nationals were on board the aircraft, which vanished on March 8, 2014, on a flight to Beijing.

A total of 239 passengers and crew were on board the aircraft, which disappeared from radar an hour after taking off.

Its disappearance has sparked scores of conspiracy theories that include a hijacking, a 'rogue' crew member who took over the controls, a bomb, an accident involving the explosion of a large quantity of lithium batteries carried in the hold and a catastrophic failure of all vital equipment.