An Air Algerie flight with at least 116 people on board which dropped off the radar in the early hours of Thursday appears to have crashed in a remote area of Mali.
Air Algerie said via Twitter that the plane has apparently crashed in the Tilemsi area, about 70 kilometers (45 miles) from the southeastern city of Gao.
Flight 5017 lost radar contact 50 minutes after takeoff from Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, early Thursday. It was supposed to arrive at Algiers' Houari Boumediene Airport about four hours later.
Ouagadougou Airport said in a statement on its website that French forces stationed in the area had detected the wreck of the plane between Gao and the town of Kidal, in a desert zone that is very difficult to access.
The remote location and security concerns mean it is unlikely that any medical help will get there within the day, the statement said.
Islamist militants have been fighting the Malian government and French forces in the region for months.
The town of Kidal was occupied some months ago by rebel fighters but French troops are now based there, backed up by the air force. Mali lies between Burkina Faso and Algeria.
The state-run Algeria Press Service news agency cited Algerian Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal as saying search operations for the plane, an MD-83, were still continuing.
The plane had 110 passengers and six crew members, Air Algerie sales manager Zoheir Houaoui told reporters Thursday. Among the passengers, he said, were 50 people from France; 24 from Burkina Faso; eight Lebanese; six Algerians; five Canadians; four Germans; two from Luxembourg; one from Mali; one Cameroonian; one Belgian; one Ukrainian; one Romanian; one Swiss; one Nigerian; and one Egyptian.
The plane's six crew members were Spanish, Houaoui said. The plane belongs to a private Spanish company, Swiftair, but it appears to have been operated by Air Algerie.