Pilgrims escape bus crash unharmed

Dozens of Austrian pilgrims had a narrow escape as their coach crashed on a motorway in Croatia.

Local police announced today (Thursday) no one was injured when the vehicle ploughed into a fence erected alongside a motorway near Sestanovac yesterday.

Officials told the Croatian Times online newspaper that the group – consisting of 47 Austrians – were travelling to Medjugorje in Bosnia and Herzegovia.

The group are understood to have continued their journey in a replacement coach.

• In July 2002, nineteen Polish pilgrims died and 32 were injured in a bus crash on their way to Medjugorje. The accident happened near Budapest in Hungary.

• In July 2007, another Polish pilgrim was killed in a bus crash that was taking pilgrims home from Medjugorje. The accident also happened in Hungary.

• A month earlier, in June, 34 American pilgrims were injured when their bus travelling to Medjugorje from Sarajevo crashed and plunged off a wet road. Twenty people were hospitalized.