People living near the site of a derailed train in East Palestine, Ohio were urged to evacuate immediately late on Sunday, amid fears a rail car could cause a deadly explosion.

Authorities warned that if the rail car does explode, it could shoot deadly shrapnel up to a mile away.

A mandatory evacuation order is in place for anyone within a one-mile (1.6km) radius.

The train, which derailed on Friday, was carrying hazardous material

The derailment sparked a large fire which is still burning. “There is a high probability of a toxic gas release,” the local sheriff warned.

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine said in a statement on Sunday: “Within the last two hours, a drastic temperature change has taken place in a rail car, and there is now the potential of a catastrophic tanker failure which could cause an explosion with the potential of deadly shrapnel traveling up to a mile.”

The governor tweeted that ”most individuals in the one-mile (1.6km) radius have already evacuated”, but added that “local officials say more than 500 people have declined to leave their homes.”

Mr DeWine asked those who have not left yet to “immediately evacuate”.

On Sunday, sheriffs went door-to-door to count residents remaining and urge people within the evacuation area to leave.

“We will be enforcing the evacuation zone,” Sheriff Brian McLaughlin of Columbiana County said in a statement on Facebook. “Please, for your own safety, remove your families from danger.”

Schools and village offices will be closed at least through Monday, and businesses within the evacuation zone are not allowed to open on Monday, officials said.

A shelter-in-place order was put into effect for the whole town of East Palestine, home to roughly 5,000 people, over concerns about chemicals possibly spilling into the air.

Two evacuation stations have opened to provide shelter to residents, CNN reported.

Officials from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said there were 20 cars carrying hazardous material on the train, 10 of which derailed about 15 miles south of Youngstown, Ohio.

Five of the derailed cars were carrying the chemical vinyl chloride, a type of gas.

Exposure to vinyl chloride has been associated with heightened risks of certain forms of cancer, according to the National Cancer Institute – but state environmental officials said harmful levels had not been detected in the community.

It is not yet known why the Norfolk Southern train, which was carrying 100-plus cars, derailed. It had departed from Madison, Illinois, and was bound for Conway, Pennsylvania, when it derailed, according to the NTSB.

NTSB officials said it will take roughly four to six weeks for the NTSB to have a preliminary report on the accident. (BBC)

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