At least 40 people, mostly elderly tourists starting off on a day trip, were killed when a bus and truck collided on a rural road in wine country in south-west France.
The cause and circumstances of the crash – near the village of Puisseguin, about 50 kilometres east of Bordeaux – were unclear. Scores of emergency workers rushed to the scene.
The death toll may have been so unusually high because the bus caught fire, an official with the national gendarme service said.
Reports from France suggested other motorists tried to smash the bus windows to free victims, as flames engulfed the vehicles.
An image released by BFM television showed the carcass of the bus – nothing but a collapsing, charred frame engulfed by smoke.
Helicopters were evacuating severely burned victims, and scores of emergency workers were at the scene.
It is the most deadly road accident in France since 53 people, mostly children, died in a bus crash in Burgundy in July 1982.
French president Francois Hollande, on a visit to Greece, said the government was “totally mobilised” to help after what he called a “terrible accident”.
The bus was carrying mostly elderly people from nearby towns on a one-day tourist trip to another site in south-west France, and had just left when it collided with the truck, politician Gilles Savary said on BFM television.
The bus was about 20 minutes into its trip and the impact was so fierce that both vehicles burst into flames, trapping many inside.
He called it one of the deadliest accidents in recent years.
French media reports said some people managed to escape, notably by breaking windows.
The weather in the region was overcast on Friday morning but not rainy.
A spokesperson for the Foreign Office said that there is “No indication that any of the victims are British at the moment”