New weapons have been found in three trucks loaded with arms which were supposed to be decommissioned ones, Macedonian police said on Saturday.

Police found 300 new German-made MG-3 machine guns and 33 M-43 mine-throwers, news reaching here from Skopje reported.

"Some of them are new, although the contract between the Macedonian ministry of defense and the metal processing plant Tito makes clear that they should be old ones," Liupco Todorovski, director of the Bureau for Public Security, told the local press.

Macedonian police seized the three Bulgarian trucks loaded with mortals, machine guns, assault rifles and pistols, outside Skopje on Thursday night, claiming that there were neither proper escorts for the shipment nor adequate documents to go with the cargo.

The Macedonian army later confirmed that the arms shipment belongs to the army, but refuted the claims for arms trafficking, saying that the weapons had been decommissioned by the army.

Macedonian police have arrested four Bulgarian men on arms smuggling charges, and promised to continue the investigation of the case.

Source: Xinhua