Passengers on board a Via Rail passenger train were left with minor injuries after their locomotive derailed near the border between Saskatchewan and Manitoba around 6 p.m. on Sunday.
The train was bound for Churchill, Man. when it slipped off the tracks, reports CJME 980, landing in Togo, Sask., a hamlet located 383 km east of Saskatoon. A small fire broke out on the train but was quickly extinguished, the CBC reports.
Jacques Gagnon, a spokesperson with Via Rail, says that the seven passengers and five crew members on board the short train only suffered "a few scratches."
"The good news is all the passengers are safe. All the employees are safe," Gagnon told The Winnipeg Free Press.
Passengers were later taken by the RCMP and Via Rail staff to a nearby lodge in Duck Mountain Provincial Park after the ordeal. Const. David Kisters from the RCMP detachment in Kamsack, Sask. told the Winnipeg Free Press it was "a miracle" that there were no serious injuries.
An investigation behind the cause of the derailment is under way but VIA rail says flooding caused by spring runoff may have washed out the tracks, according to CTV Saskatoon.
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