By DPA
Paris : At least 26 people died Sunday when a bus carrying Polish pilgrims left the road and crashed into a ravine near the south-eastern French city of Grenoble, a police spokesman told DPA.
France-Info radio reported that the accident also left 24 people injured, 14 of them gravely.
According to witnesses, the driver appeared to be travelling too fast on a steep seven-km descent and the brakes failed to slow the vehicle's speed.
The bus then left the road in a curve at the bottom of the hill, struck a bridge parapet, burst into flames and tumbled some 30 metres into the Romanche River valley, coming to rest on the riverbank.
"There were bodies everywhere. It was like the end of the world. I've never seen anything like it," one witness told France-Info radio.
Polish Prime Minister Lech Kaczynski departed for France following the accident and was to visit the injured in hospital along with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Grenoble authorities told DPA.
French Prime Minister Francois Fillon was also expected to travel to the site of the accident later Sunday.
This particular descent on the motorway between Grenoble and Gap has long been considered dangerous and is off-limits for buses without special authorisation, a local official told France-Info.
According to the official, the Polish bus had not received authorisation to travel on the motorway. The ban was imposed after a bus carrying Belgian tourists crashed in the same spot in 1973, killing 43 people.
The bus was carrying 51 people, two drivers and 49 Polish nationals who were returning from a pilgrimage to the Sanctuary of Notre Dame de la Salette, which is located about 50 km south of Grenoble.
Most of the passengers came from the city of Cracow and the surrounding area.