Three crew members of a Canadian Pacific freight train are dead after a derailment near the Alberta-British Columbia boundary.

A spokesman with the railway confirmed the westbound freight jumped the tracks at about 1 a.m. MT near Field, B.C., between the Upper and Lower Spiral Tunnels.

Conductor Dylan Paradis, engineer Andrew Dockrell and trainee Daniel Waldenberger-Bulmer died as a result of the derailment.

Salem Woodrow said there will be a full investigation to determine what caused the derailment.

British Columbia's Environment Ministry confirms between 30 and 40 grain cars are off the tracks

David Karn also said the ministry has been told the locomotive is in the Kicking Horse River.

He says the situation is being monitored and there is no immediate word of fuel or other contaminants entering the water.