A passenger jet carrying at least 147 people has crashed in a remote area of the French Alps as it flew from Barcelona to Duesseldorf.
As search-and-rescue teams raced to the region, French president Francois Hollande warned that no survivors were expected.
The crash site is at Meolans-Revels, near the popular ski resort of Pra Loup.
But with mountains all around and few clear trails to the snow-covered area, access to the crash site is expected to take time.
The Germanwings Airbus A320 plane left Barcelona at 5 to ten on Tuesday morning and sent out a distress signal at 10:45 a.m., then crashed in a
mountainous zone at an altitude of about 2 000 metres.
Pierre-Henry Brandet of the French Interior Ministry said he expected an extremely long and difficult search and rescue operation because of the
area's remoteness.
SAPA
