Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a meeting in New Delhi on the train crash Saturday morning. Later on, he travelled to Balasore and visited a hospital to meet the injured.

Modi said those responsible for the accident "will be severely punished".

"It's a serious incident for the government. Instructions have been issued to probe the incident from every angle. Those found guilty will be severely punished," he said.

Minister of Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw also visited Balasore on Saturday morning. "A high-level committee has already been declared that will inquire into the accident," he said.

India's deadliest railway accident took place in the Bihar state in 1981, killing at least 800 people when an overcrowded passenger train was blown off the track during a cyclone and plummeted into a river.