French specialists joined an investigation into the crash of an airliner that killed 160 in Venezuela, while Colombia grounded the airline that offered the charter flight to holidaymakers from the French Caribbean island of Martinique.

France’s foreign minister said today it could take time to identify the bodies of the passengers on the West Caribbean Airways plane that crashed in Venezuela, killing all 160 aboard.

A plane carrying holidaymakers crashed today in western Venezuela after reporting engine problems, killing all 160 people on board, officials said.

Officials in the French Caribbean have confirmed three cases of a brain wasting condition in the islands and said one could be vCJD - the human form of mad cow disease.