FILE PHOTO: People are seen on a boat after a flooding in Golestan province, Iran, March 24, 2019. Tasnim News Agency/via REUTERS

PARIS (Reuters) - France will airlift 12 tonnes of humanitarian aid, including 114 pumps, to flood-hit regions in Iran, the French foreign ministry said in a statement on Friday.

Exceptionally heavy rains since March 19 have flooded some 1,900 cities and villages, killing 62 people and causing hundreds of millions of dollars of damage to Iranian agriculture, leaving aid agencies struggling to cope.

France said the first shipments would start in coming days, adding that Iranian authorities had asked for assistance.