The official IRNA news agency quoted Mostafa Mortazavi, a spokesman for the country's Red Crescent, as saying the latest casualty figures had risen to 43 killed and 100 injured in the accident that occurred in sub-zero temperatures when a moving passenger train struck another parked at Haftkhan station about 250 kilometers (150 miles) east of the capital Tehran. Later on the day, President Hassan Rouhani issued a statement offering his condolences to the victims' families and assigned senior vice-president Eshagh Janahgiri to lead an investigation and identify those responsible for the incident. Initial reports had put the death toll at eight but the provincial governor, Mohammad Reza Khabbaz, later told state TV that more bodies were recovered at the scene of the crash.
Two passenger trains collide in Iran's Semnan Province resulting in at least 44 deaths and 100 people injured.