Canada: dozens missing after deadly train wreck

(Vatican Radio) Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper visited the town of Lac-Megantic Sunday afternoon, where at least 5 people are dead and 40 others are still unaccounted for after a deadly train wreck and explosion at the weekend.

All but one of the train's 73 tanker cars were carrying oil when they came loose early Saturday morning, sped downhill nearly seven miles into the town near the Maine border, derailed and began exploding one by one. At least five blew-up.

Harper pledged the government's full support to the area as it deals with the magnitude of the disaster…

“It looks like a war zone here,” said Harper. “A large part of the downtown has been destroyed.”

“People are very, very concerned about what’s happened here,” he said. “The community here is in everybody’s thoughts and prayers.”

The train's oil was being transported from North Dakota's Bakken oil region to a refinery in New Brunswick. Because of limited pipeline capacity in the Bakken region and in Canada, oil producers are increasingly using railroads to transport oil to refineries.

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