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>A train collision in northern Iran has killed at least 36 people and injured about 95, state TV reported.

The report said the accident happened in sub-zero temperatures when a passenger train hit another one which had stopped at a station about 240 km (150 miles) east of the capital Tehran.

The report said four of the fatalities were railway employees who were on the two trains when the accident happened near the city of Semnan.

The TV said four carriages derailed and two caught fire, and showed footage of rescue teams working near burning train carriages. The casualties were taken to nearby hospitals.

Provincial governor Mohammad Reza Khabbaz said the cause of the accident was under investigation and that the parked train was apparently not inside the station but on a main rail line at the time of the collision.

The TV report said 95 people who were injured in the collision were all in hospital. Many of them only suffered minor injuries.

Helicopters and ambulances were sent to join the rescue operation.

Iran reports about 17,000 deaths on average in traffic accidents every year. The high rate is mostly blamed on drivers disregarding traffic laws, old vehicles and inadequate emergency services.

Years of punitive international sanctions against Tehran over its controversial nuclear programme have also badly affected Iran’s infrastructure, including road and railway networks.
Iran arrests three railway officials in connection with yesterday's deadly train crash in Semnan that killed 45 and injured 103 people.