New Delhi: Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced on Saturday that he has ordered a high-level probe into the Odisha train derailment that claimed over 300 lives and injured 1000 people.

"The accident was unfortunate, and the rescue operation began shortly after the incident was reported to his ministry," the minister said, as quoted by ANI.

The railway ministry has announced ex-gratia of Rs 10 lakh to the kin of the deceased, Rs. 2 lahks to those severely injured, and Rs 50,000 to those who sustained minor injuries.

On Friday evening, a devastating train collision involving three trains—the Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express, the Shalimar-Chennai Central Coromandel Express, and a goods train--in Balasore, Odisha, resulted in the most fatal train accidents in the past twenty years in India.

Meanwhile, the Odisha health department in its latest health bulletin informed that as of now 1175 patients were admitted to private hospitals out of which 793 patients have been discharged while 382 patients continue to be in hospital among which 2 are critical, rest are stable.