A man's attempt to find love by releasing thousands of messages in bottles ended with him being reported to environment watchdogs.

A complaint was made to the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa) after Craig Sullivan released around 200 bottles into the River Cree in Dumfries.

Each bottle contained a message explaining his interests and background, and invited anyone to get in touch.

Residents removed them from the river shortly after they were dropped earlier this week.

Mr Sullivan, who is 49 and originally from Coatbridge in North Lanarkshire, said he decided to send 2000 messages in bottles around the UK after his wife Julia died with breast cancer 18 months ago.

In a blog post, he said: "Using any of the normal channels for this sort of thing (dating sites, friends, matchmaking services) seemed cliched or somehow less elegant, less noble in intentions than my own mind."

Lyrics of the Police song Message in a Bottle inspired him to use bottles to find love.

He said: "If I could find some good places to throw some bottles, they might wash up on your shore. You might open one and read a message. What would it say?

"So - armed with maps, tidal tables, a motorhome, 4G data, provisions and a week driving around the UK , I might just be able to send them to beaches across the world!"

Mr Sullivan, who runs a consultancy company, said he had two thousand bottles prepared for his undertaking.

One resident of Newton Stewart reported Mr Sullivan to Sepa after some of the bottles were released near a salmon hatchery.

Sepa said the bottles did not pose an environmental risk but  they should not be released into Scotland's rivers.

A spokesman said: "Our officers are comfortable that there is no environmental risk to the River Cree as a result of the bottles being released and, following enquiries, understand almost all of the bottles were contained and removed from the river fairly quickly by local residents.

"While we certainly don't condone the release of these bottles, there is no further action to be taken by Sepa."