Rail services have resumed over a stretch of the railway network in eastern India where a train crash killed 275 people – as an investigation into the disaster began.

Around 1,200 people were also injured in Friday’s rail crash – India’s worst for more than two decades, which has been blamed on a signalling failure.

Video footage on Monday showed a train passing slowly past the crash site – near the district of Balasore, in the eastern state of Odisha – while the repair work continued at the side of the tracks.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Meanwhile, railway officials and witnesses gathered to submit evidence to a two-day inquiry into what happened.

Jaya Varma Sinha, a senior railway official, said a preliminary investigation found a signal was given to the high-speed Coromandel Express to run on the main track – but the signal later changed.

The train instead entered an adjacent loop line – a side track used for parking – where it rammed into a freight train loaded with iron ore.

The collision flipped the Coromandel coaches on to another track, causing the incoming Yesvantpur-Howrah Express from the opposite side to also derail, she said.

India train crash: Aftermath of corpses, body bags and grieving families

Signal failure likely caused train to change tracks before India crash, says minister

India train crash: Hospital resembles a war zone in town on front line of overwhelming tragedy

She added that the passenger trains, carrying 2,296 people, were not speeding.

Be the first to get Breaking News

Install the Sky News app for free

Read more:
On the ground at aftermath of India train crash
‘The carriages crushed us’

“The system is 99.9% error free. But 0.1% chances are always there for an error,” she said.

Families of those killed will receive one million rupees (£9,750) in compensation, while the seriously injured will get 200,000 rupees (£1,950), with 50,000 rupees (£487) for minor injuries, railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has said.

Related posts:

Kim Jong Un says North Korea is facing its ‘worst-ever situation’ Israel launches airstrikes on ‘Hamas military targets’ as it responds to rocket attacks Lionel Messi agrees to join Paris Saint-Germain on two-year contract after leaving Barcelona Novak Djokovic denied entry to Australia and faces deportation after visa cancelled amid vaccine exemption row Boy, 11, raped in front of his mother and now only communicates using black lines, says Ukraine South Korean president told to ‘shut his mouth’ by Kim Jong Un’s sister as she rejects economic aid Muslim woman raped by Hindu mob pleads for U-turn on ‘unjust’ decision to free her attackers ‘Danger to ships’ as gas leaks from Nord Stream 2 World chess champion brands teenage rival a ‘cheat’ British nationals volunteering in Ukraine reported missing Photos show downed Chinese ‘spy balloon’ being pulled from ocean More than 400 killed in ‘worst flood we have ever had’ in DR Congo