5 people are now confirmed dead following a devastating train derailment and explosion in Canada. A huge fire engulfed a town in eastern Quebec when fuel being transported in tankers ignited after the unmanned train left the tracks.

Around 40 people are still reported missing in Lac-Megantic which is close to the border with the American state of Maine.

"This is an unbelievable disaster," Mr Harper said. "This is a very big disaster in human terms as the extent of this becomes increasingly obvious.

"You know, it looks like a war zone here. A large part of the downtown has been destroyed, it's just, it is really just terrible."

Fires were finally extinguished more than 24 hours after the accident, which forced up to 2,000 people to leave their homes.

Four tanker cars blew up after the train, which had 73 cars in all, came off the rails shortly after 1am local time. Environmental experts have also arrived in the town to assess how much oil may have spilled into the Chaudiere River.

A rail operator confirmed the train had been parked out of town, but said it was unclear how it "got released". Massive flames and thick smoke could be seen following the derailment, which caused several cars to explode.

Lieutenant Guy Lapointe, a spokesman for Quebec provincial police, said "I don't want to get into numbers, what I will say is we do expect we'll have other people who will be found deceased unfortunately. We also expect that down the line the number of people who are reported missing with regards to people who have actually lost their lives will be much higher."

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has visited the town.

No-one was on board the train when it rolled into the town, according to the operator the Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway (MMAR) company.

CBC correspondent Stephen Puddicome spoke to Breakfast here on Newstalk.