French local authorities have opened an investigation after a Polish sailor claimed his boat drifted for seven months on the Indian Ocean before being rescued off the French island of Reunion.

A local police officer says authorities seek to determine the circumstances that led rescuers on Sunday to find 54-year-old Zbigniew Reket on a boat with no navigation or communication systems. The officer spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to speak publicly.

Reket told reporters he left the Comoros Islands off Africa's east coast in May for South Africa, got lost and survived by fishing and eating Chinese noodles.

The Associated Press has not been able to confirm his story independently.