Canada police say five dead, about 40 missing after oil train blast

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Canada police say five dead, about 40 missing after oil train blast

LAC-MEGANTIC, Quebec | Sun Jul 7, 2013 12:24pm EDT

(Reuters) - The death toll from the explosion of a runaway freight train in a small Quebec town rose to five on Sunday and another 40 people are missing, police said on Sunday.

The driverless train derailed and blew up early Saturday in Lac-Megantic, destroying dozens of buildings in the center of the town.

"Two more people have been recovered, two more bodies, which brings the total to five ... there are about 40 people, more or less, who are considered to be missing," police spokesman Michel Brunet told reporters. "There could be more, there could be less."

(Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Bill Trott)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/07/us-train-deaths-police-idUSBRE9660D320130707

[MerryBlooms]

1. Awful :(

[applegrove]

2. CBC reported that the train was parked in another town. Engineer got off. A little while

later people saw the train moving slowly & on fire. Firemen put it out and stopped it. Then it got going again somehow after the firemen were gone. Was going downhill. Picked up speed. Crashed into the downtown of LAC-MEGANTIC. Very strange.