A small plane carrying a woman and her flight instructor had to make an emergency landing on a main highway in Croatia on Saturday, surprising drivers but causing no injuries.

Croatian emergency services said the incident happened on the highway connecting the capital, Zagreb with the northern Adriatic port of Rijeka.

The road is one of the main motorways in the country and is usually crowded during high-season and on weekends.

Firefighters from the nearby region of Vrbovsko cited a "technical malfunction" on the single-engine Cessna plane as the cause for the landing.