Photos: Over Two Dozen Train Cars Derail With Many Falling Into River

Online photos have surfaced showing a messy situation unfolding after a train derailed in Western Montana.

According to NBC Montana, the train derailed around 9:20 a.m. local time on a track operated by the Montana Rail Link company. The incident occurred near the town of Quinns, located roughly 70 miles northwest of Missoula near the western Idaho border.

Dominic Vitiello, a reporter for NBC Montana, shared photos from the scene on Monday, showing a frenzied tangle of rail cars stuck at various angles along the banks of a river, with some appearing to be partially submerged.

"Around 9:20 a.m. calls came into... the Sanders County Sheriffs Office of a 25 car train derailment," Vitiello wrote in a series of tweets. "According to the Sanders County Sheriff's Office, the fire department is on scene and there is no current threat to the public. This happened on a Montana Rail Link line who have been notified of the derailment but no known company is identified yet."

This incident comes in the wake of the Norfolk Southern freight train derailment in early February, a destructive incident that brought a new public attention to the issue of derailments. The accident occurred near the town of East Palestine, Ohio, and resulted in considerable contamination of the air and nearby bodies of water, due to fires that released hydrogen chloride and phosgene into the atmosphere. Around 20 of the cars on the train had been carrying hazardous chemicals.

Meanwhile, further dispatches from Vitiello reported that the local sheriff's office had yet to confirm if any workers had been injured in the derailment. As for the potential damage to the surrounding areas, officials told NBC Montana that only one car involved in the incident may be leaking propane. Otherwise, most of the cars displaced by the accident appear to be leaking beer.

At least one photo from the incident appears to show a large amount of packaged beer piled up underneath two cars, though the brand of the spilled product cannot be determined.

"There looks to be no reports of any toxic material or hazardous material, so that is very good at this point in time," Vitiello said in a video update from the scene. "They say cleanup could take well into the next couple of days, and as of right now, they do not have [an idea] of what caused this derailment at this point in time."

Newsweek reached out to Montana Rail Link and the Montana Department of Transportation via email for comment.