French President Jacques Chirac said Tuesday he was "deeply saddened" by the crash of a Colombian jetliner in Western Venezuela killing 153 French citizens on board.

The crash of the West Caribbean Airways MD-82 plane earlier Tuesday was a "shocking catastrophe," Chirac said in a statement.

"The president, in the name of all the French, expresses his sad condolences and his profound compassion to the families of thevictims and to those close to them," said the statement,

The minister in charge of overseas French territories, Francois Baroin, had been ordered to go to the island immediately, the statement said.

According to the statement, French foreign ministry in Paris has put up a crisis center to provide information to relatives of those who had been on board.

France's civil aviation authority confirmed all 153 passengers on board were French citizens and the Martinique tour company which had chartered the MD-82 aircraft, Globe Trotters, said the passengers had been returning home to the Caribbean island of Martinique, an overseas department of France, after spending a week vacationing in Panama.

Source: Xinhua