'Signal error the cause'

THE rail crash in eastern India which killed 275 people and injured hundreds of others was caused by an error in the electronic signalling system which led to a train wrongly changing tracks, India's railways minister said yesterday (Sunday).

"Who has done it and what is the reason will come out of an investigation," Ashwini Vaishnaw said in an interview with New Delhi Television network.

The explanation came as authorities worked to clear the mangled wreckage of the two passenger trains that derailed in the Balasore district of eastern Odisha state on Friday night, in one of the country's deadliest rail accidents in decades.

An Odisha government statement revised the death toll to 275 after a state officer put the number at over 300 on Sunday morning.