Bhubaneswar: In a major development in the CBI probe into the train accident at Bahanaga in Odisha's Balasore district, the central agency on Sunday picked up as many as five employees of the South Eastern Railway for questioning, a report said.

An Assistant Station Manager who was present at Bahanaga Bazar Station at the time of the mishap and four staffers of the Signal Department were being questioned by the CBI at an undisclosed location, as per the report.

Quoting sources, the report said that four employees of the Signal Department had come to Bahanaga on the fateful day for maintenance. While they were supposed to conduct signal test in coordination with the Assistant Station Manager, they left before doing the same.

CBI officials were yet to comment on the development.

The train accident involving Coromandel Express, SMVP-Howrah Superfast Express and a goods train at Bahanaga on June 2 has claimed at least 288 lives.

The CBI had earlier seized mobile phones of some of the Railway employees, who were on duty when the accident took place.

The team is likely to examine the call records, WhatsApp calls, messages and social media usage of the staff during its investigation.