tweets, external: Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr and representatives of the German government are on their way to France. An evening press release is planned.

Sebastien Giroux told France's BFM TV that he saw the plane just before the crash. "There was no smoke, nothing else, but given the altitude he had, he could not pass the mountains."

There were two babies on the flight, says Germanwings.

BBC Trending has been taking a look at the fake images purporting to be from the crash site that have already started circulating online. They include a video and a photograph recycled from past incidents.

There are thousands of the Airbus A320 aircraft model in use by various airlines. The aircraft type has suffered 11 fatal accidents since coming into service in 1988. The most recent was in December 2014 when an AirAsia plane crashed into the Java Sea killing 162 people.

Belgian Newspaper Le Soir reports Didier Reynders, Belgian Foreign Affairs Minister, saying at least one Belgian victim was on the flight.

French police at the crash site have told Reuters news agency that no one survived and it would take days to recover the bodies of those on board due to difficult terrain.

There was some speculation in German media that a computer glitch caused by frozen sensors could have forced the plane into a steep dive. However, Germanwings has confirmed the A320's computer systems had been updated and do not believe this could be a cause.

BBC transport correspondent Richard Westcott says investigators will not just be searching the crash site. They will be looking in other locations over a wide area to make sure they do not miss a vital clue, such as a piece of the plane that might have fallen off, that could shed light on the reasons for the crash.

Council official Gilbert Sauvan tells Les Echos newspaper, "The plane is disintegrated". He added that "the largest debris is the size of a car".

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls says a helicopter has managed to land near where the plane crashed in the Alps, but found no survivors, according to AP.

Sixteen schoolchildren and two teachers are believed to have been on the aircraft, a spokeswoman for the German town of Haltern am See has said. "We don't have any official confirmation yet," she added.

Local media reports, external (in German) that the children are from the Joseph Koenig school. It says the building has been closed and students sent home.

Airbus says a go-team of technical advisors will be dispatched to provide full assistance to French BEA in charge of the investigation.

Michel Suhubiette, a mountain guide based in Digne, tells French newspaper La Provence, external: "We heard a plane passing at a very low altitude but we didn't see it and it was strange as there's not a route that flies at that altitude there," he said.

Thomas Winkelmann, chief executive Germanwings

says plane went into eight-minute descent before crashing.

Sixty-seven Germans are believed to have been on board, according to Germanwings.

Thomas Winkelmann, chief executive Germanwings

Speaking at a press conference said:

• Contact between the plane and French air traffic controllers broke off at 10:53 (9:53 GMT) at an altitude of approx 6,000ft. The plane then crashed.

• The last routine check and inspection of the aircraft took place on 23 March in Duesseldorf -the technicians were from Lufthansa.

• Last regular inspection was carried out in summer 2013.

• The captain has more than 10 years of experience with Lufthansa and Germanwings, and more than 6,000 hours of flying Airbus models.

• To protect family members and cabin crew the list of passengers will not be released immediately.