Inuvik (July 31/06) - Five men have died on the Dempster Highway and one man is recovering in Inuvik Hospital after a minivan crash on July 24.

Five of the men were from the Greater Toronto Area, and one was from Whitehorse.

Police say the men were driving southbound on the Dempster Hwy, about 400 metres from the NWT/Yukon border. It is not known what caused their van to flip off an embankment and land upside-down.

"I'm not even going to speculate on a cause right now," said Sgt. Dan Gaudet of the Dawson City RCMP. Alcohol is not believed to have been a factor in the crash, he added.

Gaudet said police discovered the red minivan upside-down outside an embankment around 8:20 p.m. Monday night.

Four of the men were dead when police arrived and the fifth died shortly afterwards.

Gaudet adds two officers from Fort McPherson were first on the scene. They were later joined by two Mounties from Inuvik.

While the name or home region of the injured man has not been released, pending notification of his family, the deceased are identified as: Naoman Sidat, 56, Mohammed Khan Pathan, 65, and Mohammed Saeed, 33, all of Toronto; Azmat Jamil Sheikh, 38, of Markham, Ont.; and Khalid M. Malik of Whitehorse.

Both the Fort McPherson and Inuvik detachments of the RCMP would not answer questions about the accident, referring reporters to the Dawson City RCMP.

Police will continue to investigate.