Italy's foreign minister has expressed his condolances to the victims of Tuesday's aircrash in the French Alps in which all 150 passengers and crew aboard the Germanwings Airbus A320 plane were killed.
"I am profoundly distressed by the air disaster in the Alps. I want to express my solidarity to the victims and to their families. Italy stands close to Germany, Spain, Turkey and all the countries involved," Paolo Gentiloni said in a statement.
The airliner went down between Digne and Barcelonnette in southeastern France on its way from Barcelona to Duesseldorf.
The dead are believed to include 16 German schoolchildren on their way home from an exchange trip. Passengers were believed to include 67 Germans and 45 Spanish citizens.
It was the worst plane disaster in mainland France in four decades.
Weather conditions were reportedly good when the plane lost altitude and crashed into a mountainside at around 11 am local time and disintegrated. Its black box has been recovered.
Germanwings is wholly owned by its parent company Lufthansa and has an excellent safety record with no previously reported accidents.
The White House said there was no initial evidence of terrorism.
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