Italian media reported that the death toll from Tuesday's head-on train collision has climbed to 27, with 50 others injured.

Italy's Minister of Transportation Graziano Delrio blamed the accident on a dangerously flawed signalling system. Station managers use the system to communicate directly with train drivers by phone on the single-track line. He described it as the least sophisticated and most risky.

Meanwhile local officials suggested human error might have been to blame for Tuesday's crash.

The incident occurred when two passenger trains were allowed to travel down the same stretch of track with no signalling in place to stop them.