Crews work Thursday to clean up a freight train derailment just east of Edmonton. (CBC)

A train derailment east of Edmonton early Thursday morning was caused by a piece of road construction equipment that appears to have been deliberately placed on the tracks, the RCMP said.

A CN train was travelling west and crossing an overpass on Highway 16 at 12:20 a.m. MT when it hit a pavement packer, police said. The train left the tracks on the north side of the highway.

Fuel spilled from the train and caught fire, but it was quickly extinguished. The two people on the train were able to get out without injury. Two engines and 13 of 85 cars on the train left the track.

Police are now looking at how the pavement packer got on the track.

"It was stolen, we believe, from a construction site probably 300 metres from the train tracks to the west," said Const. Wally Henry of the Strathcona County RCMP. "It was left on the tracks presumably by whoever stole it from the construction site."

RCMP expected Highway 16, a major east-west corridor through Edmonton which is also known as the Yellowhead, to remain closed until Thursday evening.

The closure caused major tie-ups for Edmonton commuters during the Thursday morning rush-hour.

Officials will inspect the overpass to ensure the derailment didn't cause any structural damage.