Bus Crash in French Alps Kills 26

Twenty-six Polish pilgrims died when their coach crashed off a mountain road at a notorious accident black spot in the French Alps and burst into flames, police and officials say.

Another 24 people were injured, 14 critically, when the coach smashed through a roadside barrier on the steep Laffrey gradient, some 30 kilometers (19 miles) from the southeastern city of Grenoble, after apparently suffering from braking problems.

The coach careered 40 meters 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 smoldering 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 mobilized 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 authorization 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.

Residents of Notre-Dame-de-Mesage, a town near the site, said the bus missed a 90-degree bend in the steep mountain road. They said the bus burst into flames and was destroyed in the blaze.

Buses have been prohibited from using the 5-mile stretch of road - which has a 7 percent grade - without a special permit since a similar accident in the 1970s, also involving pilgrims.

The bus involved in Sunday's crash pilgrims had no such permit, firefighters said.