TEMPO.CO, Tehran - At least 44 people have been killed and 100 others injured when two passenger trains collided in Iran's north-central province of Semnan, and the death toll is likely to rise, according to news reports and local officials.
President Hassan Rouhani ordered an acceleration of rescue efforts as well as an investigation into the cause of the deadly crash on Friday.
Iranian state television broadcast footage of the wreckage showing four derailed carriages, with two of them on fire.
Aerial images published by the IRINN news channel also showed several people and rescue vehicles near the site of the accident.
A spokesman for Iran's Red Crescent, Mostafa Mortazavi, told the semi-official Fars news agency that firefighters were trying to control the blaze.
The crash occurred at the Haft-Khan station in the city of Shahroud, about 400km east of the capital Tehran.
The governor of Tabriz told the semi-official Tasnim news agency that the moving train had 400 passengers on board.
It was not clear how many passengers had been on the second train. Fars had earlier said 100 had been rescued.
"Out of the 400 passengers ... 48 are missing. They might be hospitalized or left the area... but there is a high possibility that they were killed," Rahim Shohratifar told Tasnim.
Semnan Governor Mohammad Reza Khabbaz told Fars that the death toll could increase.
AL JAZEERA | ARKHELAUS W