Cleanup efforts are expected to take more than one week following a freight train derailment in western Quebec.

The train derailed Monday evening in the small town of Saint-Polycarpe, in the Montérégie area.

More than 20 of the cars on the 95-car convoy came off the tracks just before 7 p.m. Four of them were carrying propane and diesel fuel.

The Sûreté du Québec said there were no fires or leaks from the propane cars, though some vegetable oil did leak from a tanker.

There were no injuries according to police.

Most of the derailed cars landed in farm fields. Saint-Polycarpe fire chief Michel Belanger said four of the cars ended up in a nearby river.

“There are absolutely no leaks [into the river] from any of the cars that were derailed,” he said, adding that the accident could have been a lot worse.

Belanger said removing the train from the area are repairing the track would likely take at least one week.

In a written statement made Tuesday, a spokesperson for the Canadian Pacific Railway said "we will take the steps necessary to remediate and restore the environment as quickly as possible."

The cause of the derailment is so far unclear.

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada had an investigator at the site on Tuesday. Also on-site were CP crews.

“Any high-traffic area involving lots of trains per day is going to be an important line to the railway, so it’s vital that they get it cleaned up and operational as soon as possible,” Transportation Safety Board of Canada inspector Clayton Finch-Field told CTV Montreal from the scene.

Public Security Minister Martin Coiteux was on the scene Tuesday morning.

"There's going to be an investigation into this particular case as it has to be as it should be and we will wait for the conclusions of that investigation," he said.

Saint-Polycarpe Mayor Jean-Yves Poirier commended the emergency crews for a quick and effective response, adding that the situation is currently "under control."

“They are fixing the rails,” he said. “They are feeling comfortable with all the intervention that they have to do.”

Poirier called it fortunate that the train went off the rails in a rural area, as opposed to in the town centre, saying the outcome could have been much different had the derailment site been in a different location.

“We’re lucky that it happened here,” he said. "It's a big relief at least but, you know, we were close to something very different."

The mayor said he can't help but think of the deadly rail disaster in Lac-Megantic.

"Canada was built with the railway so at this point they're crossing our towns everywhere and it's a problem," said Finch-Field.