19:16 Fears that nobody survived
French President Francois Hollande said he believed none of the 148 people on board the Germanwings plane that crashed on Tuesday had survived."The conditions of the accident, which have not yet been clarified, lead us to think there are no survivors." Hollande said.

He said the crash was a tragedy and called for solidarity with the victims, adding that the area was very difficult to access. "It's a loss, a tragedy which has happened on our soil."

19:14 Debris found
Debris from the plane has reportedly been found near a French village, AFP reports.

[Source: ABC News]

19:07 Distress call at 10:47
The plane took from Barcelona at 10:01 am local time in northern Germany and disappeared from radar screens at about 11:15 am, Europe 1 reported.

It had made a distress call at 10:47 am, Le Figaro reported.

19:04 Reports of downed plane not confirmed
Both Airbus and Germanwings have said they aware of the reports but cannot yet confirm them.

A statement from Germanwings on Twitter: "We have recently become aware of media reports speculating on an incident though we still do not have any own confirmed information."

18:50 At least 148 aboard plane

A Germanwings Airbus A320 registration D-AIPX is seen at the Berlin airport in this March 29, 2014 file photo. [Photo/Agencies]

An Airbus A320 plane crashed on Tuesday in the southern French Alps, security sources said.

One of the sources said the plane, travelling between Barcelona and Dusseldorf, boarded at least 142 passengers, two pilots and four cabin crew.

The jet belongs to the German low-cost airline Germanwings, a subsidiary of Lufthansa.

Germanwings and Lufthansa were not immediately available for a comment.