def get_positions_from_xyz_file(file):
    """
    Simple parser for xyz file and return positions in a list
    """

    positions = []
    with open(file, 'r') as fileh:
        lines = fileh.readlines()
        for line in lines[2:]:
            parts = line.split()
            # Support the case in which the species label is present
            if len(parts) == 4:
                start = 1
            else:
                start = 0
            pos = [float(i) for i in parts[start:]]
            positions.append(pos)

    return positions