A plane carrying 150 people, including a group of schoolchildren, has crashed in the French Alps.

These pictures show the wreckage of the Airbus A320 jet, operated by Lufthansa’s Germanwings budget airline.

Investigators are describing a scene of devastation.

One official, who has flown above the mountainous crash site in a helicopter, said the Airbus had “literally been ripped apart.”

Flight 4U 9525 was en-route from Barcelona to Dusseldorf when it crashed in Meolans-Revel, a remote and sparsely populated area, around 100 kilometres north of Nice.

According to Germanwings, the jet started plummeting shortly after reaching its cruising height.

It descended for around eight minutes, before losing contact with air traffic control at around six-thousand feet. The pilots did not issue a distress call.

The airline believes there were 67 Germans onboard the flight.

Sixteen children and two teachers – returning from an exchange trip – are said to be among them.

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