China has ordered its media not to probe a deadly high-speed train crash that has triggered public anger and raised questions over the rush to develop the rail system, reports said Tuesday.

Journalists have been ordered to focus on "touching stories" and avoid questioning official accounts of the disaster, which killed at least 39 people, Chinese bloggers and the US-based China Digital Times website said.

China's railway minister said Saturday's accident, which left nearly 200 people injured and was the worst to hit the country's rapidly expanding high-speed rail network, had taught the country a "bitter lesson".

"We must on one hand extract these lessons and deeply examine and reflect on them, while rousing ourselves from this setback and concentrating our efforts on inspecting and rectifying hidden safety problems," said Sheng Guangzu.

The railways ministry is to pay 500,000 yuan ($78,000) in compensation for each victim of the crash, Xinhua reported, citing an official.

The government has sacked three senior railway officials and announced an "urgent overhaul" of the national rail network.

But the moves have failed to stem a tide of criticism of the government's handling of the disaster, which initial reports blamed on a lightning strike knocking out power to the first train.

Despite the reporting ban, many continued to question why the driver of the second train, which ploughed into the first -- crushing some carriages and forcing others off the rails -- was not warned in time to stop.

The official China Daily said Tuesday there were "unanswered questions" over the signalling system, and quoted experts as saying the accident may have been caused by "a failure in despatch management".

The front page of the English-language Global Times carried the headline "Anger mounts at lack of answers" and interviews with family members of victims who questioned the official death toll.

In a commentary, the daily said that safety "should be the core principle of China's development", but that "blind and hasty finger-pointing should be avoided".

Even the state-run Xinhua news agency published a piece about widespread criticism of rail authorities, saying the way they handled the aftermath of the crash had "done nothing to reassure the public of their professionalism".

However the report, which carried comments by survivors, online users and analysts, was only published in English and not in Chinese, in a sign it may have been destined for a foreign audience.

Criticism on the Internet was more outspoken, with many bloggers voicing outrage.

"Maybe a fact we have to face is that we are paying the price for chasing after an excessively rapid pace of development," wrote one blogger under the name Tong Dahuan.

"The government and officials that dominate public construction do not have any natural advantages when it comes to morality, intelligence or capability."

Shares in railway stocks dropped again on Tuesday, although the falls were not as dramatic as Monday.

Shanghai-listed shares of China South Locomotive and Rolling Stock (CSL), which was involved in making both trains in the accident, closed down 3.6 percent.

China's high-speed rail system only opened to passengers in 2007, but has grown at breakneck speed thanks to huge state funding and is already the largest in the world, with 8,358 kilometres (5,193 miles) of track at the end of last year.

The trains involved in Saturday's collision were the first generation of China's high-speed trains, and designed to travel at a top speed of 250 kilometres per hour.

More recently, China has introduced a second generation of bullet trains that can run up to 380 kph, although their speed is restricted to 300 kph for safety reasons.

China's propaganda authorities typically move swiftly to limit coverage of major disasters that could embarrass the government.

The China Digital Times said the nation's media had been ordered to focus on positive stories such as blood donors coming forward and free taxi services.

"All reports regarding the Wenzhou high-speed train accident are to be titled '7.23 Yong-Wen line major transportation accident' and use in the face of great tragedy, theres great love as the major theme," the directive said.

"Do not question. Do not elaborate. No re-posting on micro-blogs will be allowed!"

The People's Daily, the Chinese-language Communist Party mouthpiece, carried stories Tuesday of how villagers "dashed to the disaster scene" to help with the rescue effort after the crash.

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