Live: 'No Survivors' From Germanwings Crash In Southern France

A Germanwings flight carrying 144 passengers and six crew from Barcelona to Dusseldorf crashed Tuesday in the southern French Alps, aviation authorities said. French transport officials said there were no survivors.

French President François Hollande called the crash "a tragedy on our soil'', adding that he would be speaking later in the day with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

There were no survivors from the crash of flight 4U9525, said Alain Vidalies, France's junior minister of transport.

The Germanwings Airbus A320 plane sent out a distress signal at 10:45am local time before crashing in a mountainous zone at an altitude of about 2,000 metres (6,550 feet), said French interior ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet.

Brandet told BFM television that he expected the search and recovery operation to be "extremely long and extremely difficult'' due to the remoteness of the crash site."