Czech Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek said 80 of the passengers were Greek school children returning from a holiday in Cyprus.

In another air crash, a plane carrying vacationers home to the French Caribbean island of Martinique crashed on Tuesday in western Venezuela after reporting engine problems, killing all 160 people on board.

The McDonnell Douglas MD-82 was headed from Panama to Martinique when its pilot requested permission to make an emergency landing just after 1230 IST, saying there was trouble with both engines

Top: A policeman looks at the tail of the Cyprus private airlines 'Helios' plane at the crash site near Grammatiko.

Bottom: Relatives of French passengers killed in the West Caribbean Colombian airline air crash in western Venezuela, carry flowers in memory of their beloved ones in Maracaibo.

Photographs: LOUISA GOULIAMAKI/AFP/Getty Images and ANDREW ALVAREZ/AFP/Getty Images