A station master in southern Italy has admitted he allowed a train to go on a single track, minutes before a deadly collision with an oncoming train.

Twenty-three people died and 52 others were hurt in the head-on crash on a single track between Andria and Corato in the Apulia region on Tuesday.

“I let the train go, I was the one who gave the signal,” Andria station master Vito Piccarreta told Italian media.

But he was adamant he was not the only one at fault.

Mr Piccarreta, a railway employee with 24 years of service, was quoted by La Stampa and other newspapers as saying: “I’m not the only one at fault, everyone is blaming me. But I’m a victim too.”