French President says likely no survivors after plane crashes in Alps with 148 on board

France's president said Tuesday that no one was likely to have survived the crash of a passenger plane with 148 people on board that went down in the French Alps.

In a live briefing, Francois Hollande said the area of the crash was remote and it was not clear whether anyone on the ground had been hurt.

The Airbus 320 operated by Germanwings had crashed while flying to Dusseldorf, Germany from Barcelona, Spain with 142 passengers and six crew members on board. Germanwings is the budget airline run by Lufthansa and primarily used by Europeans for booking weekend getaways or business trips.

"It's a tragedy on our soil," said Hollande, who added that he would be speaking shortly with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, as it was probable that most of the victims were German.

France's interior ministry, reported that debris from the plane had been found near a village in the region. Eric Ciotti, the head of the regional council, said search-and-rescue teams were headed to the crash site at Meolans-Revels.