German school group of 16 students and two teachers die in crash

School children bring candles in front of the Joseph-Koenig Gymnasium in Haltern, western Germany Tuesday, March 24, 2015. A Germanwings plane from Barcelona crashed on its way to Duesseldorf over the French alps today, 16 school children and 2 teachers from Haltern are under the victims. Image by (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

Residents of the western German town of Haltern have been left shocked after hearing that 16 local high school students and two teachers were on Germanwings Flight 9525.

The group had just spent a week on a Spanish exchange programme and were on the flight that crashed this morning into the French Alps.

A visibly shaken mayor summed up the mood when he said: “This is pretty much the worst thing you can imagine.”

“You can feel a state of shock everywhere,” Bodo Klimpel said. The town of 38,000 lies about 80km (50 miles) north east of the plane’s destination of Duesseldorf.

Some people hugged and cried in front of the Joseph Koenig High School, where the 10th graders had studied, and put candles on its steps.

Students put candles on a table tennis table in front of the Joseph-Koenig Gymnasium in Haltern, western Germany Tuesday, March 24, 2015. A Germanwings plane from Barcelona crashed on its way to Duesseldorf over the French alps today, 16 school children and 2 teachers from Haltern are among the victims. Image by (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

Others changed their Facebook cover photos to black, with the simple message “Haltern mourns; In memory of the victims of the March 24, 2015 plane crash.”

Officials confirmed that the school group was among the 150 people on board the plane.

The victims are believed to have included a total of 67 Germans, including an opera singer, many Spaniards, business travellers en route to a trade fair in Cologne and one person from the Netherlands.

The German students and their teachers spent a week in Llinars del Valles and were seen off at the town’s train station for their early morning trip to the airport by their Spanish host families, said Pere Grive, the deputy mayor of the town of 9,000 about a 45-minute drive from Barcelona.

Debris of the Germanwings passenger jet is scattered on the mountain side near Seyne les Alpes, French Alps, Tuesday, March 24, 2015. Image by (AP Photo/Claude Paris)

German and Spanish students from the two towns have been doing such exchanges for at least 15 years and the Spanish students had spent time in Germany in December.

“We are completely shattered and the students are also devastated,” Mr Grive said.

In Haltern, the high school was going to be kept open but no classes are planned. “There will be an opportunity for the students to talk about the terrible event,” Mr Klimpel said.

In Duesseldorf, the Deutsche Oper am Rhein opera house said bass baritone Oleg Bryjak was among the victims, returning from Barcelona, where he had sung Alberich in Richard Wagner’s Siegfried at the Gran Teatre del Liceu.

“We have lost a great performer and a great person in Oleg Bryjak. We are stunned,” director Christoph Meyer said.

In Spain, authorities were still trying to determine how many of their citizens were on board.

Business travellers included Carles Milla, the managing director for a small Spanish food machinery company, his office said, adding that he had been on his way to a food technology fair in Cologne.

Two employees of Barcelona’s trade fair organisation were also on the flight.

A rescue helicopter takes off from Seyne les Alpes, French Alps, Tuesday, March 24, 2015. A Germanwings passenger jet carrying at least 150 people crashed Tuesday in a snowy, remote section of the French Alps, sounding like an avalanche as it scattered pulverized debris across the mountain. Image by (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

At Barcelona airport, where the plane began its journey, psychologists helped grieving relatives who were quickly escorted to a secure area.

Catalonia’s regional leader, Artur Mas, said the government would arrange transportation for families who want to view the crash site but did not say when the visit would take place.

At Barcelona airport, passenger Marcel Hemmeldr said felt “very strange” to check in for Germanwings’ evening flight to Duesseldorf.

“The people were standing at the same place where we’re standing now … now they’re not there anymore. So it’s a strange feeling, a really strange feeling,” he said.

“I feel sorry for everybody in Germany. All the people there who have lost some family members.”

See also: Experts ponder reasons for Germanwings French Alps crash that killed 150

No survivors of Germanwings horror crash in French Alps with 150 onboard