A coach carrying Polish pilgrims has crashed near the southeastern French city of Grenoble killing 26 people.
The coach crashed off a mountain road at a notorious accident blackspot in the French Alps and burst into flames, police and officials said.
Another 24 people were injured, 14 critically, when the coach smashed through a roadside barrier on the steep Laffrey gradient after apparently suffering from braking problems.
The coach careered 40 metres down the slopes before coming to rest on the banks of the Romanche river.
Most of the victims perished in the fire, said emergency officials, and DNA forensic experts from Paris would be needed to identify the bodies.
Television pictures showed several bodies laid out underneath white sheets on the river banks, the coach smouldering in the background as fire crews doused it with foam.
Several helicopters and a fleet of emergency vehicles ferried the injured to hospital in Grenoble in an operation that mobilised 60 police as well as fire-fighters.
The Poles had been attending a pilgrimage at the nearby Notre-Dame de la Salette sanctuary along with nationals from Belarus, Ukraine, France, Russia and Britain.
'It is a dangerous road, so dangerous that coaches that don't have the authorisation to take it, which seems to be the case here, are banned from taking it,' French Prime Minister Francois Fillon told reporters after visiting the scene.
'Doubtless the best thing to do is ensure that this type of vehicle does not take such a difficult route as this.'
French President Nicolas Sarkozy sent a message of condolence to his Polish counterpart Lech Kaczynski and will meet the Polish president at Grenoble airport when he arrives.
The spot has been the scene of deadly accidents in the past.
A Belgian coach crashed near the same spot in July 1973, killing 43 people.
