(AP Photo/Sûreté du Québec via The Canadian Press)

FIVE PEOPLE WERE confirmed dead Sunday and at least 40 missing some 36 hours after the catastrophic derailment of an oil-laden cargo train in the Quebec town of Lac Megantic, police said.

Police spokesman Michel Brunet told reporters two more bodies had been discovered a day after the train jumped its track and set a large part of the town’s centre ablaze. Two corpses were found earlier Sunday and one on Saturday, officials said.

The accident in the Quebec town, located around 250 kilometers east of Montreal, created a fireball and forced 2,000 people from their homes.

80 missing as train carrying oil derails and explodes in small Canadian town>

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