TEHRAN - Two people were killed and some 400 houses and shops were damaged by floods which swept through Chaldoran in the northwestern province of West Azarbaijan on Saturday.

The Public Relations Office of the Chaldoran Governor's Office said on Sunday that the city's bridge and crops in the nearby village of Abgarm were also damaged by the flood, which was triggered by heavy rainfall.

The damages are estimated to amount to some Rls.200 billion.

The floodwaters rose four meters over the banks of the city's river. The floods also damaged several springs and some roads.

The city of Chaldoran, with a population of 60,000, is located near the border of Iran and Turkey.

Also, Minister of the Interior Abdolvahed Mousavi Lari at a cabinet meeting on Sunday, chaired by President Mohammad Khatami, presented a report on recent floods in the northwestern Iranian province of Ardebil.

The cabinet expressed sympathy with the families of those killed in the floods, and commissioned officials in charge of natural disaster emergency units to look into solving the problems caused by the floods and compensating the losses.

The cabinet also authorized the Ministry of Interior to allocate some Rls.3 million (equal to about $380) to each aggrieved family.

Heavy torrential rains and hailstorms Friday and Saturday in the northwestern Province of Ardebil triggered floods that left dozens of cars and houses under mud, and inflicted heavy human, material and livestock damages.