Photo : See faces of the 2 men who boarded missing Malaysian flight with stolen passports

After initial reports saying one of them looked like Mario Ballotelli, police have released images of the two men who boarded the missing Malaysia Airlines flight with stolen passports.

Officials today identified one of the men as 19-year-old Iranian Pouria Nur Mohammad Mehrdad, who police said was believed to have been planning to enter Germany to seek asylum and was not thought to be a member of a terrorist group.

Malaysian police chief Tan Sri Khalid Tan Sri said the identity of the other man was still under investigation.

Inspector Tan said his team of investigators had no doubts Pouria was not part of a terrorist group but was using a stolen passport to fly to Germany.Inspector Tan said the possibility that the plane had been attacked by a terrorist group was 'fading' - adding that 'terrorism is less likely' - but then he revealed that an illegal act could not be ruled out.

Asked how he had established this, Inspector Tan said:
 We've spoken to his mother. She has been waiting for him to arrive in Frankfurt.

'When he did not arrive she realised something had gone wrong and then she heard about the plane disappearing.'