Sixty people were killed when a Russian-built Antonov plane crashed in flames in Equatorial Guinea shortly after take-off from the capital Malabo, said President Teodoro Obiang Nguema.
Obiang declared a three-day period of national mourning following Saturday's crash which, he said, had killed mostly young Equatorial Guineans and women.
The plane, which went down on a domestic flight in thick jungle, "was completely destroyed, burned and there were no survivors," national radio announced.
Intense grief, mourning
"Our people are going through the worst moments of grief, consternation and sadness ever known in their history," Obiang declared.
At first the government had said a total of 55 people were on the ageing 48-seater Antonov-24, while the operating company, the private airline Ecuatair, said its records showed there were 35 passengers and 10 crew.
Airport sources said crews in the West African country are often bribed to take additional people on board.
The radio said many of the victims were Malabo college students going on holiday from the island of Bioko where the capital is situated to their homes.
The funerals of the 60 victims will take place on Monday. A presidential decree said flags would be flown at half-mast during the mourning period.
President Obiang called for an inquiry into the causes of the accident to prevent similar events from occurring.
Identifying the victims
It took rescuers until Sunday to reach the crash site in a remote area some 30km from Malabo, as they had to skirt the 3 007m high Mount Basile. Bad weather, including non-stop rain, made the operation even more difficult.
Some of the remains of the dead, charred beyond recognition, were taken in plastic bags to the main hospital in Malabo.
Authorities quickly abandoned an impromptu identification process when after holding up the purse of a female victim, the crowd surged forward, prompting clashes with police.
A crisis unit has been set up to oversee the salvage operation, identify the dead and report on developments.
What went wrong
An eyewitness said on Saturday he saw the aircraft go down shortly after takeoff at 10:00 from Malabo for the city of Bata on the Equatorial Guinea mainland.
The wreckage was not located until eight hours later near the district of Baney, the government statement indicated.
The plane skidded over trees for a distance of about a kilometre before it crashed, according to aerial photographs.
Ecuatair has only one other plane, a Soviet-built Yak-40.
Most of the planes, piloted mainly by Russians, Ukrainians and Armenians, are Soviet-era aircraft that often no longer meet international flight standards and are not allowed to land at airports in other countries in the region.
In April Equatorial Guinea authorities grounded another local company, the Union de Transportes Aereo de Guinea Ecuatorial, for safety reasons after a series of technical breakdowns.