Australian authorities have declared an emergency after a train derailed on Monday Dec. 28th with tens of thousands of gallons of sulfuric acid on board.
According to CNN, the freight train was carrying roughly 200,000 liters (53,000 gallons) of the highly corrosive acid when it came off the tracks Sunday morning in a remote area of northern Queensland, police said.
A 2-kilometer (1.2-mile) exclusion zone was put in place around the area and remained in effect Monday as authorities dealt with “minor leakage of sulfuric acid and spillage of diesel fuel,” the Queensland Police Service said.
The train’s locomotive ended up on its side, and all 26 freight cars it was pulling derailed, according to authorities.
Photos from the scene showed the jumble of cars sprawled across mangled tracks and waterlogged terrain.
Three men who were aboard the train were believed to have suffered minor injuries, police said.