Plane Crashes living 44 persons dead...

A Lao Airlines plane carrying 44 people, including French and Thai citizens, from the capital Vientiane to the southern town of Pakse crashed killing all on board on Wednesday, officials said.

At least seven French citizens and five Thais were among those killed when the plane carrying 39 passengers and five crew went down around eight kilometres (five miles) from the airport in Champasak province in southern Laos, officials said.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said he had learned of the deaths with “deep shock and great sadness” and that France was rushing embassy officials to the site of the crash.

Pakse is a hub for tourists travelling to more remote areas in southern Laos.

“I can now confirm, according to our reports, that all 44 people on board have died, including five Thai,” Thai foreign ministry spokesman Sek Wannamethee told AFP.

Pictures on Thai television showed a small plane, half submerged in the river, with what appeared to be bodies lying on the banks.

An official at the South Korean embassy in Bangkok told Yonhap news agency that three South Koreans were also among the dead.

State-owned Lao Airlines confirmed the crash in a statement on its official 

It said the aircraft hit “extreme” bad weather and had crashed into the Mekong River.

“There were no news of survivors at this time,” it said, but did not confirm the number of deaths.

“Lao Airlines is taking all necessary steps to coordinate and dispatch all rescue units to the accident site in the hope of finding survivors and at the same time informing relative of the passengers,” the English language statement said.