By the Associated Press and KFDI News:

UPDATE:  Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board are in Missouri trying to determine how an Amtrak train carrying more than 200 people slammed into a dump truck, killing two train passengers and the truck driver.

Amtrak’s Southwest Chief was traveling from Los Angeles to Chicago Monday afternoon when it struck a dump truck and derailed at the crossing near Mendon. It isn’t yet clear how many people were hurt but hospitals near the accident scene in western Missouri reported receiving more than 40 patients from the crash.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol says the collision derailed seven cars. The truck was broken into pieces.

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A passenger train traveling from Los Angeles to Chicago derailed in Missouri on Monday after hitting a dump truck that was blocking a public crossing.  The Missouri Highway Patrol said there are at least three deaths, and Amtrak said some people were injured, but it was not immediately clear how many.    Highway Patrol spokesman Justin Dunn said two deaths were from the train and a third was from the dump truck.

Amtrak said in a news release that the Southwest Chief was carrying about 243 passengers and 12 crew members when the collision happened near Mendon at 1:42 p.m. Eight cars and two locomotives derailed.

Video from the scene showed rail cars on their side as emergency responders used ladders to climb into one of them. The video also showed six medical helicopters parked nearby waiting to transport patients.

Mendon is about 84 miles northeast of Kansas City.

A spokesman at University Hospital in Columbia said three people were arriving from the scene but information on their conditions was not available.

The Southwest Chief had stopped in Newton, Kansas on its trip to Chicago.