A passenger train has derailed in the Canadian province of Ontario, killing at least three people and injuring dozens of others.
The train travelling from Niagara Falls to Toronto crashed near Burlington, operator Via Rail said.About 75 people are believed to have been on the train, and 45 were injured. It is not clear what caused the accident.
Images from the scene showed at least one carriage lying on its side.
Via Rail said the three people killed were employees, and a fourth crew member suffered minor injuries.
TV footage showed the seriously injured being carried away on boards and stretchers while others were led out of the wreckage by emergency workers.
Three passengers were airlifted to hospital, one with a heart attack, officials said.
Burlington Mayor Rick Goldring said the crash had caused damage to nearby buildings.
Passenger Deanna Villela, of Welland, Ontario, said she felt a slight bump before the train left the tracks, sending people and luggage flying.
Canada's Transportation Safety Board said it had launched an investigation.
What caused Via Rail derailment near Burlington?
Investigators say they'll be looking at every possible factor in Sunday's deadly Via Rail crash, including speed, equipment and which of the three engineers — one of whom was a trainee — was steering the train when it crashed near Burlington, Ont."We're going through step by step looking into every area that might have been causal in this," Tom Griffith, a senior rail investigator with the Transportation Safety Board, said Monday during news conference held at the crash site.
"It's too soon for me to say right now what the cause was, but we will know."
It's possible that the trainee, one of three Via Rail employees killed in the crash Sunday afternoon, could have been behind the controls, but he would have been working under strict supervision, Griffith said.
"There were three crew members in the head end of the train. As to who was on the controls — right now we're still investigating that," Griffith said.
Passenger train 92 derailed on a straight track in good weather Sunday near Burlington, a community about 60 kilometres southwest of Toronto.
The incident occurred very near to the site of a 2008 freight train derailment in the city.
Via Rail identified the three employees who died as Ken Simmonds, 56, Peter Snarr, 52, and Patrick Robinson, 40.
Simmonds and Snarr were both from Toronto and both had more than 30 years of service as locomotive engineers with CN and Via. Robinson, of Cornwall Ont., was a new Via employee who was on board as an observer as part of his familiarization program.
No criminal charges have been laid, Griffith said, which is why the Transportation Safety Board has taken the lead in the investigation.
Passenger train 92 was changing tracks when it derailed, Griffith said. There was a crew working on one of the tracks, Griffith said, but that had nothing to do with the switch.
In investigating speed, one factor to take into consideration is that the train must slow down before switching tracks, Griffith said. He would not speculate on whether the train failed to slow down, adding that information from the train's black box could answer that question.
The Transportation Safety Board has started downloading that information, Griffith said, but they "will have to go a little farther" to get the rest of the information because of the damage done to the black box during the crash.
"This is a truly heart-rending situation for all of us at Via. Our sincerest condolences go out to the family members of our employees who died in the line of duty yesterday, and our thoughts and prayers to those passengers who were injured," Marc Laliberte, Via's president and chief executive officer, said in a statement Monday morning.
Rex Beatty, the president of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, told CBC News on Monday that crossovers are normal operations that happen routinely.
However, he admitted that it is his understanding that crossovers do not happen at that location that often.
"It would be unusual at that location given the proximity to Toronto, but it's certainly not abnormal in any way."
The derailment seriously injured three passengers.
The six-car Via Rail passenger train came off the rails on a straight track in good weather Sunday afternoon.
The incident occurred close to the site of a 2008 freight train derailment in the city, which is located about 60 kilometres southwest of Toronto.
First responders arrived to find one of the passenger cars "completely on its side," and another "on a bit of a slant," said Halton Regional Police Chief Gary Crowell, speaking at a news conference Sunday night. The badly damaged locomotive was resting against a trackside building.
Via officials said three passengers had serious injuries and 42 other passengers and one other crew member were also taken to local hospitals. Among the injured was a child. They were taken to four hospitals in Hamilton, Ont., and Mississauga, Ont.
The three most seriously injured suffered a broken leg, a back injury and a heart attack.
One passenger was reportedly ejected from the train through a broken window.
David Onley, Ontario's lieutenant governor, said in a statement that he was saddened to learn of the crash.
"As the Queen's representative and on behalf of the people of Ontario, I offer my sincere condolences to families who have lost loved ones. My prayers are with you, and with those who have been taken to hospital with injuries," Onley said.
"I offer my appreciation and commendation to the emergency response crews from Burlington, Hamilton, and Toronto who responded so swiftly to this crisis."
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