OTTAWA -- Canadian authorities quarantined a Via Rail passenger train traveling from Vancouver to Toronto after one person died and several fell seriously ill on Friday, officials said.

Police and ambulances rushed to the scene in the hamlet of Foleyet in northern Ontario to tend to those with flu-like symptoms and find out what was causing the illness.

"They've got the train quarantined," town official Deborah DesRochers told public broadcaster CBC. "They're trying to isolate what it is."

According to police, seven people were ill with flu-like symptoms when the trans-Canada train with 260 passengers and 30 crew made its regular morning stop in Foleyet.

One person was taken by helicopter to an area hospital and was in "stable" condition," said Emergency Medical Services regional director Steve Trinier.

Meanwhile, medical personnel in hazardous materials suits were trying to determine if there is an infection or communicable disease at play, or whether the sudden sickness was due to toxic environmental exposure, or even food poisoning, he said.

The illnesses appeared to be contained in two rail cars.

Police said the dead woman in her 60s joined a small tour group on the train in Jasper, Alberta province. The sick are also part of this group, said Ontario Provincial Police Constable Marc Depatie.