India says rescue operations concluded after worst train crash in decades

BAHANAGA, India, June 4 (Reuters) - Indian authorities said they had concluded rescue operations on Sunday after the country's deadliest rail crash in more than two decades, with signal failure emerging as the likely cause of death for at least 275 people.

The death toll from Friday evening's crash was revised down from 288 after it was found that some bodies had been counted twice, said Pradeep Jena, chief secretary of the eastern state of Odisha.

But nearly 1,200 were injured when a passenger train hit a stationary freight train, went off the tracks and hit another passenger train passing in the opposite direction near the district of Balasore.

State-run Indian Railways, which says it transports more than 13 million people every day, has been working to improve its patchy safety record, blamed on ageing infrastructure.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who faces an election due next year, visited the scene on Saturday to talk to rescue workers, inspect the wreckage and meet some of the injured. "Those found guilty will be punished stringently," Modi said.