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Eight more bodies have been recovered from the aftermath of the Lac-Megantic, Que. train crash, bringing the total number of confirmed deaths to 13.

The number of those pronounced dead has risen now that investigators have managed to gain better access to the zone closest to the blast. Fifty people are still missing.

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The climbing death toll comes as the chairman of the company whose train exploded in the town claimed he is certain it was tampered with.

“We have evidence of this,” said Ed Burkhardt, of Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway. “But this is an item that needs further investigation. We need to talk to some people we believe to have knowledge of this.”

On Sunday, however, the company issued a statement saying their officials had been so far unable to conduct their own investigation.

A probe by the Transportation Safety Board is currently underway to determine what caused a parked, unattended locomotive to roll towards the town of 6,000 and derail in the city centre. TSB investigators have inspected several of the locomotives involved, as well as obtained two black boxes that contain data about the train’s brakes, throttle position and speed at the time of the incident.