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Tieng Anh Vui
Prime Minister Stephen Harper: ''It looks like a warzone here''
Dangerous conditions are hampering the search for 40 people missing after a runaway crude oil train blew up in a Quebec town, killing five.
Fire crews were unable to search Lac-Megantic overnight because dozens of tanker wagons are strewn across the site after the blast early on Saturday.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the place looked like "a warzone" as he toured the area on Sunday.
At least 30 buildings were totally incinerated by the fireball.
"It's an area that is still extremely risky," police spokesman Benoit Richard said on Monday. "The fire service decided they could not allow us to go there for security reasons. We'll see what we can do today."
'Nightmare'
Many of those missing were believed to have been drinking at a popular downtown bar when the explosions occurred, he added.
None of the dead have been identified, and the five bodies recovered so far, all badly burned, are being sent to Montreal for identification on Monday.
Officials have warned that some of the dead may never be recovered, given the intensity of the fire.
Anne-Julie Huot, 27, said at least 25 people she knows are still missing.
"I have a friend who was smoking outside the bar when it happened, and she barely got away, so we can guess what happened to the people inside," she told the Associated Press news agency. "It's like a nightmare."
Firefighters worked over the weekend to put out remaining fires.
On Monday, they were dousing two oil-filled cars with water and foam in an attempt to keep them from overheating and exploding.
'Unbelievable disaster'
The train had been parked in the village of Nantes, about 7km (four miles) from Lac-Megantic, during an overnight driver shift-change.
Eyewitnesses say the streets "were filled with fire"
Somehow 73 cars carrying pressurised containers of crude oil became uncoupled from five locomotive engines, gathering speed as they rolled downhill before derailing in the heart of Lac-Megantic, which is about 250km east of Montreal.
The explosion sent a fireball and black smoke into the air, forcing the evacuation of 2,000 people.
Prime Minister Harper said an "unbelievable disaster" had befallen Lac-Megantic, as he toured the town on Sunday.
Canada's transportation safety board has retrieved the train's data recorder and a separate device that contains details of the braking system.
The train had been travelling from the Bakken Field in North Dakota to a refinery in Saint John, New Brunswick.
The operator, Montreal, Maine & Atlantic, owns more than 800km of track serving Maine, Vermont, Quebec and New Brunswick.
It has seen increased shipments of crude oil from North Dakota and Canada's oil fields.
A picturesque lakeside town that is home to some 6,000 people, Lac-Megantic is close to the US border with Maine.
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