Authorities confirm at least two people are dead and 17 others injured after an avalanche struck Boulder Mountain Saturday afternoon.
Cpl. Dan Moskaluk told ctvbc.ca that roughly 200 people were on the hill, located just west of Revelstoke, B.C., attending the Big Iron Shootout snowmobile event when the avalanche hit at around 3 p.m.
"It's a large-scale rescue recovery incident," he said. "We don't have a count at this point in time of the people missing."
Two people were killed and two of the survivors are in critical condition, according to the BC Ambulance Service.
Emergency crews spent Saturday evening clearing people off the mountain while search and rescue teams from Revelstoke, Golden, Arrow Lakes and Nelson scoured for other survivors.
They will continue until nightfall, Moskaluk said, and reassess the situation Sunday morning.
CTV camera operator Rod Romano arrived at the avalanche scene about three minutes after the slide occurred.
"There was a flurry of activity," he said. "People were digging furiously."
Two people were recovered within 12 minutes of searching, Romano said, but one had already died. Some were only partially buried, while others had just their hands reaching out of the snow.
"There were a number of people that were buried just maybe two feet under," Romano said. "People were able to pull them out."
The Boulder Mountain area has been closed off to assist the rescue effort.
Greg Johnson from the Canadian Avalanche Centre said the region was hit by heavy snow on Thursday and Friday, which greatly increased the danger of a slide. Ten avalanches have been reported in the area in the last two days.
The centre issued a number of warnings in B.C. this week for the province's South Coast, Kootenay-Boundary area and the North and South Columbia regions.
"We've had a lot of close calls recently and, although this new snow will be tempting, the avalanche conditions in these areas will be very dangerous," Johnson said.
Watch CTV News at 11:30 for more on this developing story
