Varazdin, Aug 9, 2022: Twelve people were killed and 31 injured, 18 of them seriously, when a Polish bus filled with religious pilgrims slipped off a road and crashed near Varazdin in northwestern Croatia early on August 6, authorities said.
The passengers were adult pilgrims who were travelling to Medjugorje, a Catholic Marian shrine in southern Bosnia, Croatian Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic told reporters.
Police, firefighters and medical teams were deployed to the site of the accident that occurred at 5:40 am near Breznicki Hum in the direction of the capital Zagreb, the police said.
“We have 43 injured people, of them 12 deceased,” said Maja Grba-Bujević, the director of the Croatian Emergency Medicare Institute.
“All the victims are Polish citizens – we can at this point confirm this,” a Polish Foreign Ministry spokesman told Polish private broadcaster TVN24. “The bus has Warsaw registration plates.”
An investigation into the cause of the accident was under way.
Medjugorje (between mountains) is a town located in southwestern Bosnia and Herzegovina, on the border with Croatia. Since 1981, it has become a popular site of Catholic pilgrimage because of Our Lady of Međugorje, a purported series of apparitions of Mary, to six local children that are still happening to this day.
Since 2019, pilgrimages to Medjugorje have been authorized by the Vatican.
Medjugorje has become one of the most popular pilgrimage sites for Catholics in the world and has turned into Europe’s third most important apparition site, where each year more than 1 million people visit.
It has been estimated that 30 million pilgrims have come to Međugorje since the reputed apparitions began in 1981.
Source: https://premierchristian.news/en/news/article/12-pilgrims-on-way-to-christian-site-killed-in-bus-crash?utm_source=Premier%20Christian%20Media&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=13388942_daily%20news%2007%20August%202022&dm_i=16DQ,7YYZ2,UKUZQ9,WL658,1