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A horrible train derailment left three people killed and injured dozens more Sunday in Burlington, Ontario.

The Canadian Via Rail passenger train derailed west of Toronto, killing three railroad employees and injuring dozens of passengers.

Via Rail spokeswoman Michelle Lamarche said the three people killed were all engineers riding in the cab of the locomotive at the front of the train.

Burlington Mayor Rick Goldring also confirmed that three people died in the accident.

Lamarche said no passengers died, but 45 of the 75 people on board were injured. The train was traveling from Niagara Falls to Toronto when it derailed around 3:30 p.m. Sunday.

The train crashed on its side into a small trackside building, and at least two passenger cars behind it were driven off the tracks into an L-shape. All six cars derailed, a Via official said.

The scene from the crash was unspeakable, as twisted metal and debris covered the area.

Emergency crews scrambled to pull passengers to safety amid reports fuel was leaking from the train. Some passengers were carried away on boards and stretchers while others, looking dazed and battered, were led out of the wreckage by emergency workers.

Three passengers were airlifted to hospital, one with a heart attack, another with a broken leg and the third with a back injury.

Forty-two other passengers suffered less-serious injuries and were either treated at the scene or taken to local hospitals. Some 30 passengers were well enough to continue on to Toronto’s Union Station by bus.

One of the train’s passengers, Faisal Abid, 21, told The Toronto Star that he was in the first car when it suddenly derailed and fell on its side.

Mr. Abid said: “My legs were basically on the windows. There was blood everywhere.”

Deanna Villela of Welland, Ontario, said she felt a slight bump before the train jumped off the tracks, sending people and luggage flying. The crash lasted about 10 seconds but felt like “forever,” she said.

Goldring said the crash caused minor damage to nearby buildings.

Via chief operating officer John Marginson said:

“There’s no question it’s very tragic. We’re a relatively small company, we’re a family, we know everyone by name. We certainly feel for the families of the colleagues that we lost.”

Transportation Safety Board investigators were on the scene Sunday and will investigate a key piece of evidence: the train’s data recorder. It was not immediately known how fast the train was traveling.