Death toll in Quebec runaway train blasts raised to three, officials say

At least five people were killed when a runaway freight train set off a series of explosions in a small Canadian town. Authorities fear the number of dead will rise dramatically when investigators locate the nearly 40 people missing, NBC's Katy Tur reports.

By F. Brinley Bruton and Emma Ong, NBC News

Canadian police raised the death toll to five after a runaway freight train set off a series of devastating explosions and a fire in a small Quebec town. They said they expected to find more bodies.?

"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."

"We do expect we'll have other people who will be found deceased, unfortunately," said police spokesperson Lt. Guy Lapointe, according to Canada's CTV News. "We also expect that down the line ... there will be more people reported missing than people actually found dead."

Fires were finally extinguished more that 24 hours after the driverless train carrying petroleum products derailed in the town, but officials said there was still a risk of explosion.?

"We still have a risk of explosion because there are still two tankers on fire," a fire official said at the press conference on Sunday. "We still have two tankers that we have problems with."

"It is a mess, we lost great buildings, historic buildings here in Lac-Megantic," he added. "We had the bibliotheque [library] with great memories of people here destroyed. It is a mess."

Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper was set to visit the disaster site on Sunday, CTV reported.

A Quebec town was evacuated and one person was reported dead after a train carrying petroleum products derailed and exploded in the early hours of Saturday morning. NBC's Michelle Franzen reports.

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This story was originally published on Sun Jul 7, 2013 10:13 AM EDT

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