Two passenger trains
collided in Iran's north-central province of Semnan on early Friday, killing at
least 15 people and injuring dozens, Iranian media reported, saying
the number
of fatalities and casualties expected to rise.
"At least 15
people were killed and over 20 others have been injured in the crash," the
semi-official Mehr news agency quoted head of Iran's Red Crescent Ali Asghar
Ahmadi as saying.
Iranian media gave
contradictory reports on the death toll and number of injured passengers in the
crash. The semi-official Fars news agency said 52 people were injured, who were
transferred to nearby hospitals.
Reports gave no
details on the number of passengers in the trains. But Fars said 100 passengers
had been rescued.
State television
showed footage of four derailed carriages, with two of them on fire. A
spokesman for Iran's Red Crescent, Mostafa Mortazavi, told Fars that
firefighters were trying to control the blaze.
"The accident
happened when a passenger train in motion crashed to another one that had
stopped at the station," it said.
The cause of the
collision was under investigation, it said, adding that rescue teams have been
dispatched to the site of accident.
"We can have a
better idea about number of casualties after the fire is put out," Ahmadi
said, Mehr reported.
The crash occurred
at the Haft-Khan station in the city of Shahroud, about 400 kilometers (250
miles) east of Tehran.
A local official
told state TV that the remote location of the train station had slowed down
rescue efforts.
"So far only
one helicopter has reached the scene because of access difficulties," said
local head of the Red Crescent Hasan Shokrollahi.
Reuters
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