‘No hope’ for 30 missing in Quebec train blaze disaster

All 30 people missing in the Quebec train disaster are now presumed dead, police announced today.

The death toll in Canada’s worst railway catastrophe for almost 150 years now stands at 50 after 20 bodies were found in charred wreckage following the derailment at Lac-Megantic.

Five of the 73 carriages — all but one carrying oil — exploded when the train hurtled off the tracks last Saturday.

Attention has focused on the CEO of parent company Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway, who has blamed the unmanned train’s engineer for setting the brakes wrongly.

Residents greeted Edward Burkhardt with jeers and heckles as he arrived in the town with a police escort.

Quebec premier Pauline Marois hit out angrily at the company’s response to the disaster and described Mr Burkhardt’s attitude as “deplorable and unacceptable”.

She said: “We have realised there are serious gaps from the railway company from not having been there and not communicating with the public.”