Australian Deputy Minister, Warren Truss said on Thursday that the discovery of debris off the coast of Reunion Island is "a very significant development" in the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, but it's too soon to say whether it's part of the missing aircraft.

Authorities are treating it as "a major lead," Truss told reporters.

The debris which was found Wednesday off the coast of Reunion, a French department in the western Indian Ocean is being examined to determine whether it is connected to Flight 370, according to a member of the French air force in Reunion.

The passenger jet, a Boeing 777, vanished en route to Beijing in March 2014 with 239 people aboard.

So far, no confirmed trace of it has been found, making it one of history's biggest aviation mysteries and leaving many relatives of passengers and crew members feeling at sea about the fate of their loved ones.

Truss said Thursday that there is a number -- BB670 -- on the wreckage that may help investigators in the identification process. He said it wasn't a serial or registration number but could be a maintenance number.

Australia is leading the underwater search for the remains of Flight 370 in the eastern Indian Ocean. Truss nonetheless said that French and Malaysian authorities will be responsible for establishing whether the debris found off Reunion came from the jetliner.

The Malaysian government has dispatched a team to Reunion Island to investigate the discovery, Malaysian Minister of Transportation Liow Tiong Lai said in New York on Wednesday.

"We have wreckage found that needs to be further verified before we can further confirm if it belongs to MH370," the minister said.