The accident occurred around 5:35 a.m. local time (03:35 GMT) on the highway toward Zagreb between the villages of Jarek Bisaski and Podgora in the Varazdinska Zupanija county. A bus with Polish license plates went off the highway near a curve.
"We received a signal from a Polish citizen who was in the bus. All emergency services, 16 ambulance crews, police and firefighters were immediately dispatched. At this moment, we have information that 11 people died, 33 were injured and taken to hospitals in Varazdin and Zagreb. Another person died in a hospital, bringing the total number of victims to 12, the victims suffered many severe injuries," Bozinovic told a briefing.
Preliminary information indicated that there were no children among the dead and injured.
According to the minister, the bus is registered in the Polish city of Grodzisk Mazowiecki near Warsaw and was carrying a group of Catholic pilgrims to the village of Medugorje in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Crews of medics, firefighters and police are still working at the scene of the accident.