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Twenty-six Polish pilgrims died yesterday when their 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, some 30 km 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.

"Doubtless the best thing to do is ensure that this type of vehicle does not take such a difficult route as this."

Gendarme (police) Lieutenant-Colonel Thierry Rousseau said: "Witnesses spoke of a problem with the braking system, an unusual black smoke." Local officials said the coach's speed may also have been a factor in the accident.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy sent a message of condolence to his Polish counterpart Lech Kaczynski and would meet the Polish president at Grenoble airport when he arrived later yesterday, the French presidency said.

Maciej Lopinski, an aide to the Polish president, told the Polish news agency PAP that the victims' families would receive financial support from a special presidential fund.

Yesterday's accident happened close to where a Belgian coach crashed in July 1973, killing 43 people.

Robert Caban, owner of the transport firm that hired out the coach, told PAP the drivers were experienced and the 7-year-old Scania coach was in good condition.

"Ahead of the pilgrimage the coach underwent a thorough check-up in Germany and everything was in order. Before going on the pilgrimage it had traveled to Spain, and everything was in order," PAP quoted him as saying.

(China Daily via agencies July 23, 2007)