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One Dead in Canadian Train Derailment


Canadian authorities say at least one person has been killed after a train carrying crude oil derailed, triggering massive explosions in a small town in Quebec province.

Several people are feared missing in the accident early Saturday.

Four pressurized tank cars exploded in the middle of Lac-Megantic, sending a gigantic fireball into the night sky. The blasts destroyed dozens of buildings in the lakeside town of 6,000 people that is 25 kilometers north of Canada's southeastern border with the United States.

As many as 1,000 people were evacuated from their homes.

Fires burned for hours after the explosions and both Canadian and U.S. firefighters fought the blazes.

The rail company that operated the train -- the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway -- said that shortly before midnight Friday, the train's conductor parked it and locked its brakes before checking into a hotel for the night.

But the rail line said that "sometime after, the train got loose," speeding into the town "under its own inertia," before derailing.
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