BOEUN -- A tourist bus crashed with a van inside an expressway tunnel Saturday, leaving two people dead and another in cardiac arrest, officials said.

The 15-seat van was traveling inside Suriti Tunnel along the Dangjin–Yeongdeok Expressway in Boeun, 135 kilometers southeast of Seoul, when the tourist bus rear-ended it at 8:55 a.m., police officials said.

The accident left two of the van's 11 passengers dead and another in cardiac arrest. The injured person was sent to a hospital for treatment.

The other eight passengers also sustained injuries, four of them seriously, while two of the bus' 26 passengers were also injured.

The police are investigating the exact cause of the crash. (Yonhap)