MNA � The Foreign Ministry of France announced that the country will send an emergency humanitarian aid shipment to Iran to mitigate the effects of floods which have hit several provinces of Iran in the past few days.

In a Friday statement, the French Foreign Ministry expressed its "utmost solidarity with the Iranian people" and offered condolences to the family of victims.

�Given this situation, and in response to the needs expressed by the Iranian authorities, the Crisis and Support Center of the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs is organizing an emergency humanitarian aid shipment to Iran,� reads the statement, adding, �Twelve tons of humanitarian cargo, including 114 motorized pumps, will be sent by air.�

�The first shipment is expected in the coming days,� highlights the statement.

Exceptionally heavy rains since March 19 have flooded some 1,900 cities and villages across Iran, claiming 56 lives, according to Interior Minister Rahmani Fazli, and causing hundreds of millions of dollars of damage to Iranian agriculture. Floods have affected several provinces in the north and west of the country including, Golestan, Mazandaran, Lorestan, and Khuzestan.