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2nd LD Writethru: Germanwings unveils air crash victims' nationalities

Xinhua, March 25, 2015 Adjust font size:

German budget airline Germanwings unveiled Wednesday more details about nationalities of the victims of the flight 4U9525 that crashed Tuesday in French Alps.

Addressing a press conference in German city of Cologne, where the headquarters of Germanwings are located, the company's CEO Thomas Winkelmann confirmed that 72 Germans and 35 Spanish citizens were onboard the ill-fated jet, citing information updated as of 11:00 local time (1000 GMT).

In addition, there were also victims from Britain, the Netherlands, Colombia, Mexico, Japan, Denmark, Belgium, Israel, Australia, Argentina, Iran, Venezuela and the United States, Winkelmann said.

Details about the nationalities of other victims will be further updated, he added.

The CEO did not give further information about the causes of the crash.

The Germanwings flight 4U9525 crashed in southern French Alps en route from Spain's Barcelona to Germany's Duesseldorf on Tuesday with 150 people on aboard, including 144 passengers and six crew members.

"Our top priority now is to take care of family members of both the passengers and the crew members," said Winkelmann.

"We already have had contacts with 123 affected families," he said, adding that professional psychologists are ready to provide help for every individual.

According to the CEO, Germanwings' parent company Lufthansa has set up care centers in Barcelona and Germany's Duesseldorf, Frankfurt and Munich where family members of the victims are getting psychological care.

Two special planes of Germanwings, Winkelmann further said, would carry relatives of the victims and psychologists to southern France on Thursday, with one flying from Duesseldorf and the other from Barcelona. The airline would also send a plane to take family members of the crew to France. Endit