The Montenegrin government on Thursday sent a note to Albania protesting over an environmental incident in the River Bojana on the border between the two countries, where over the past ten days animal carcasses have been arriving from Albania to the Montenegrin side of the river.

The authorities in Podgorica said they would alert their international partners about the situation.

The border between Montenegro and Albania is 146 kilometres long, and the southern part of the border runs along the River Bojana to the Adriatic Sea.

Since September 30, locals on the Montenegrin side of the river have discovered a large number of plastic bags with dead poultry and cow and pig carcasses at several locations upstream from their settlements.

After a visit to the area, the Montenegrin Agency for food safety said that this was a cross-border problem and that the dead animals had arrived from neighbouring Albania as there were no farms on the Montenegrin side of the river in that area.

The presence of salmonella bacteria was confirmed in the chicken carcasses.

Montenegro has said that environmental incidents damage the reputation of its coastal town of Ulcinj as a prestigious tourist destination.