Germanwings

"The United States offers condolences and stands ready to provide assistance in the investigation of Germanwings' Airbus A320 crash" said the US President.

The first pictures from the region in the French Alps near the spot where the Airbus A320 of Germanwings airline (low-cost subsidiary of Lufthansa) crashed on Tuesday, carrying 144 passengers and six crew members have been released.

Many rescue services and helicopters participate to the search.

Search and rescue teams recovered one of the black boxes of the Germanwings airplane, which crashed over the French Alps on Tuesday.

The Airbus A320 was conducting flight 4U 9525 from Barcelona to Dusseldorf, when it crashed between Digne and Barcelonnette after an eight-minute descent, killing all 150 people on board.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov expressed condolences to the families of the victims, who were killed in the Germanwings airplane crash over the French Alps on Tuesday.

Borisov was shocked to learn about the heavy incident, which claimed the lives of 150 people, the government's press service reports.

Prime Minister Victor Ponta stated, on Tuesday, that he is shocked by the news of the air crash in France and declared that his thoughts go towards the families and close ones of the victims of the crash.

Photo credit: (c) Alex MICSIK / AGERPRES PHOTO

German Chancellor Angela Merkel held a press conference in Cologne, on the Alps airliner disaster. She expressed her deep sorrow for the accident.

“We are in shock. We are mourning. We are doing everything so that relatives have all the help they require”, stated the German Chancellor on the crash of the Germanwings aircraft.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Bogdan Aurescu has sent, on Tuesday, his condolences to the families of passengers aboard the Germanwings plane that crashed in the French Alps.

Photo credit: (c) Ilie BUMBAC / AGERPRES PHOTO

"It is a great loss and tragedy", said Aurescu, in a tweet.

Germanwings has issued a statement saying there were 144, and not 142, passengers on board its plane that went down in the French Alps.

The company, which is a subsidiary of German national carrier Lufthansa, is due to comment on the developments at 14:00 GMT.

Wreckage from the Airbus A320 that fell down in the French Alps has been located, a French Interior Ministry spokesman says.

Pierre-Henry Brandet told French media outlets the passenger jet, which was carrying 142 passengers and 6 crew, cashed at an altitude of 2000 meters.

French President Francois Hollande said that he believed none of the 148 people on board the Germanwings' airbus that crashed on Tuesday in the French Alps has survived.

Noting that the crash happened in a zone that is particularly hard to access, the French President characterized the accident as a "tragedy in our soil"