Judicial authorities in Iran have arrested three railway employees, including two senior staffers, as part of an investigation into a recent deadly train collision in the north-central Iranian province of Semnan.

On Friday, a total of 45 people lost their lives and 103 others were injured in the collision of two passenger trains at a station in Semnan.

Semnan’s Prosecutor-General Heydar Asiabi said on Saturday that the head of the railway’s command and control center for northeast Iran, the head of the track control center, and the individual in charge of the particular shift at the center when the collision occurred had been arrested.

Asiabi referred to a message written by Iran’s Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Sadeq Amoli Larijani to the provincial Court of Justice to urge the expedient implementation of follow-up measures and said the Court acted accordingly.

Meanwhile, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has offered condolences over the train accident as well as a terrorist attack in Iraq that killed at least 73 people, including many Iranians, on Thursday.

The picture shows the wreckage of a truck following a bombing that targeted pilgrims returning from the Arba’een commemoration in the Iraqi holy city of Karbala, in the Iraqi village of Shomali, southeast of Baghdad, November 24, 2016. (By AFP)

In a message on Saturday, the Leader said the train collision had been caused by “intentional or unintentional mistakes and imprudence” on the part of those with relevant responsibilities, striking the families of the victims with grief.

“I ask authorities and those with responsibilities in both the domestic and foreign [affairs] area not to easily pass by these painful incidents and make the tackling of such traumas at their roots their top priority,” Ayatollah Khamenei said.

Iranian First Vice President Es’haq Jahangiri has expressed assurances of the stern criminal prosecution of those who have either intentionally or inadvertently caused the crash.

A motion has also been drawn up at the Iranian Parliament (Majlis) to impeach Minister of Roads and Urban Development Abbas Akhoundi, over the train accident.

The motion, which has drawn 20 signatures, is to be presented to Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani next Sunday.

The speaker of the Parliament has asked Majlis’ Civil Commission to send a committee tasked with probing the incident to the crash site and submit a final report to the legislature.

In the Saturday message, Ayatollah Khamenei also referred to the terrorist attack in the Shomali Village in the suburbs of al-Hillah, near the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, and described the bombing as a “cowardly” and “outrageous” act.

The terrorist assault, which was carried out by the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group, involved a truck bomb that exploded at a gas station in the Shomali Village, killing at least 73 people, including many Iranians, on Thursday.

The Leader said the Takfiris detested the massive demonstration of religious devotion in a secure environment by Muslims on the occasion of Arba’een, the 40th day since the anniversary of the martyrdom of Imam Hussein (PBUH), a grandson of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), and sought to take revenge with the bombing.

Similar terrorist attacks elsewhere in the world, such as in Nigeria, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, once again remind Muslims of the threat posed by Takfiris and the states supporting them, Ayatollah Khamenei noted. </s> Tehran (AFP) - The head of Iranian Railways has resigned after four of his employees were arrested following a collision between two trains that left at least 44 people dead.

Mohsen Poor-Seyed Aghaie, a deputy minister in the transport ministry and head of the state-owned railway company, appeared on state television late Saturday and announced his resignation "as a social responsibility and out of sympathy for the survivors of this accident".

Two trains collided and one caught fire in the northern province of Semnan on Friday, killing 44 people and injuring dozens more, in one of the country's worst ever rail disasters.

The crash took place on the main line between Tehran and Iran's second city Mashhad.

One of the trains had stopped between the towns of Semnan and Damghan after an apparent mechanical failure, forcing officials to halt others on the line.

But when a new shift started at the control centre in Shahroud, the second train was allowed to resume its journey.

The accident happened due to "human error", Aghaie said, explaining that the official at the control centre had told the train driver to manually disable an automated system that was preventing it from moving toward the broken train.

Three in the control centre and the train driver were detained over the resulting crash.

The train driver "who had fled to a hideout" was arrested on Sunday, a local judge in Seman province told the judiciary-linked Mizan Online website.

"During the investigation, three people in charge of the northeast train control centre based in the city of Shahroud... were arrested," provincial prosecutor general Heydar Asiabi told reporters.

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei offered his condolences on Saturday for the "painful incident", which came just a day after more than 60 Iranian pilgrims were killed in a suicide attack in Iraq. </s> ANKARA (Reuters) - Forty-four people were killed and 103 injured when one Iranian passenger train collided with another at a station about 150 miles (250 km) east of the capital Tehran, state media reported.

“I was sleeping when the crash happened. I thought it was an air strike ... When I opened my eyes, there was blood everywhere,” a hospitalized passenger told state television.

State television footage showed four derailed carriages, two of them on fire and a spokesman for Iran’s Red Crescent, Mostafa Mortazavi, told the semi-official Fars news agency that firefighters were trying to control the blaze.

Senior Health Ministry official later announced via Tasnim news agency that rescue operations had been completed and the final death toll was 44. An investigation into the cause of the crash in the northern province of Semnan was continuing.

Semnan provincial governor Mohammad Reza Khabbaz told Iranian television it appeared that a train entering the Haft-Khan station on the outskirts of Shahroud plowed into another that had broken down there.

“The initial investigation suggests that a mechanical failure, possibly caused by cold weather, forced the express train, operating between the cities of Tabriz and Mashhad, to stop (at Haft-Khan),” Khabbaz said.

Tabriz state governor Rahim Shohratifar told Tasnim that the moving train had 400 passengers. It was not clear how many passengers were on the stationary train. Fars earlier reported that 100 passengers had been rescued.

Semi-official Mehr news agency said four of the dead were railway employees aboard the trains.

Iran’s rail network aged badly under economic sanctions imposed over its disputed nuclear program, making it difficult to modernize rolling stock, and safety standards suffered.

The sanctions were lifted in January after Iran reached a deal with world powers to limit its nuclear activity.
Iran arrests three railway officials in connection with yesterday's deadly train crash in Semnan that killed 45 and injured 103 people.