Two people are dead and two others were injured after a tour bus carrying 12 people crashed near Glacier National Park in southeastern B.C., RCMP confirmed Thursday night.

The tour bus crash, as indicated by a yellow dot in the map, happened near Glacier National Park in southeastern B.C. The tour bus crash, as indicated by a yellow dot in the map, happened near Glacier National Park in southeastern B.C.
(CBC)

RCMP said the tour bus slid off the highway and rolled down an embankment, on the Trans-Canada Highway, 11 kilometres east of Rogers Pass between Golden and Revelstoke.

The cause of the accident, which happened shortly after 6 p.m. PT, is not yet known.

One person was injured after being pinned under the flipped vehicle, while the other had minor injuries, police said.

"We're very fortunate that so many people weren't hurt and will be going back to Golden with the bus and the RCMP," Kristy Hillen, a spokeswoman for the B.C. Ambulance Services, told CBC News Thursday night.

The B.C. Highways Ministry reported fog and slippery road conditions in Glacier National Park early in the evening but a Parks Canada spokesman said the road was bare at the time of the crash.

Five ambulances raced to the scene but only one was needed, police said.

A tour bus crashed on the same stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway in 2000, killing six people. 

Local residents have long called for improvements to what they describe as a killer highway — the same highway Prime Minister Stephen Harper and B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell visited two days ago to announce a $64-million upgrade.

On Tuesday, three people were killed and several injured when a Greyhound bus rolled over in northwestern Alberta. RCMP said road conditions were icy at the time of the accident.

With files from the Canadian Press