A group of secondary school students from Belgrade were held up at the border with Croatia for five hours by the border police who claimed that their travel documents were not in order, Belgrade daily Vecernje Novosti said on Friday.

The students from the 9th Belgrade Secondary School were on their way to Slovenia for a field trip, but were held up at the border crossing at Sid after the Croatian border police refused to allow one of the three buses across the border.

Serbian secondary schools traditionally organize annual field trips in October, taking their students to destinations in the country and abroad.  

The students turned back and made their way to Slovenia through Hungary, the daily said, adding that the Hungarian border police had found nothing wrong with their travel documents.

Vecernje Novosti said it was told by the Jadran Line Novi Sad bus company that the Croatian border police found fault with one document, which was allegedly stamped in the right instead of the left corner. The company said that this was the first time this had ever happened to them.  

School Headmistress Tatjana Sukovic said that the choice was between turning back or taking the longer route.

“We decided to go through Hungary, and that same bus with the allegedly debatable paperwork crossed the border without any problems,” she said.