At least 26 Polish pilgrims died and 20 are still remaining in a critical condition when a bus traveling from a holy site in French Alps
(the Sanctuary of Notre-Dame-de-la-Salette),
crashed into a river at around 9:30 am, near the French city of Grenoble.

An eye-witness said, that the driver appeared to be traveling too fast on a steep mountain road, smashed into a river after which the bus burst into flames.
Some local residents saw some of the passengers being thrown out of the bus, but many were trapped inside

Philippe Baret, who owns the field where the bus landed, said he helped pull the injured and the dead out of the bus before flames engulfed it. Unfortunately according to him at least six of the pilgrims were stuck inside and burned to death before his very eyes

Survivors were evacuated by helicopter to hospitals in Grenoble.

Polish President Lech Kaczynski and his French counterpart, Nicolas Sarkozy, traveled to the southeastern French city of Grenoble to meet with injured, Sarkozy pledged to follow the investigation very closely.

Other French officials, including French Prime Minister Francois Fillon and his deputy prime minister, Jean-Louis Borloo, who is in charge of transportation, visited the crash site. Borloo has launched an investigation into the causes of the accident.

Fillon said he was pained by the accident, which "hit young people and older people who were coming back from a pilgrimage and should never have died" in such a way.

The actual count onboard the bus varies.
Polish Foreign Ministry spokesman Robert Szaniawski said in Warsaw that 50 people were on the bus, including 47 pilgrims, 2 drivers and a guide;
French media reported between 50-60 people on board. .

According to Marcin Szklarski president of Orlando Travel, the agency that organized the pilgrimage, most of the pilgrims were in their 50s to 70s. There were three children — a 12-year-old and two 13-year-olds, and several pilgrims in their 20s and 30s.
They left Poland on July 10 for a two-week visit to famous sanctuaries in France, Spain and Portugal, including shrines in Lourdes, France, and Fatima and Portugal.
The bus, a 2000 Scania, underwent technical checks three weeks ago in Germany and had passed its checks.

According to the Rev. Slawomir Zyga, most of the pilgrims were from the Szczecin area in northwestern Poland, near the German border including three priests. One of them called the church after the accident.

"He said he was shaken up and bloody, but alive," Zyga told Poland's TVN24, adding he had no information about the two other priests.

The driver who was behind the wheel at the time of the crash was killed, while his colleague survived but has yet to be questioned, local police said.

The crash sparked a wave of indignation among local residents and politicians who complained that the road had long been a safety hazard. It was the site of several other accidents involving buses: a 1973 crash in which 43 pilgrims were killed, and crash two years later that left 29 dead.

"We can't manage to make this descent safe," Jean-Jacques Defaite, the mayor of the neighboring town of Laffrey, told LCI television.

After the accidents in the 1970s, buses were required to obtain a permit to use the 8-kilometer-long (5-mile-long) road, which has a 12 percent gradient. The bus involved in Sunday's crash had no such permit, firefighters said.

Others said that speed of the bus, not the steep road, was likely responsible for the crash.

Grenoble's state prosecutor Serge Samuel told France Info radio that four motorcyclists who were following the bus for several kilometers (miles) before it plunged off the road said it was traveling at about 70 kilometers (44 miles) per hour. Experts would verify the bus' speed, he said.

The Polish government is organizing a flight from Szczecin to Grenoble for the victims' families, Polish officials said. There is no immediate indication of how many people will be on board.

Nestled between Alpine peaks, the Sanctuary of Notre-Dame-de-la-Salette is about 1,800 meters (5,900 feet) above sea level. The complex was built on the site where two children claimed the Virgin Mary appeared to them in 1846. It has since become an important pilgrimage site, drawing Catholics from around the world.