diff --git a/app/vmalert/notifier/alert.go b/app/vmalert/notifier/alert.go
index 3bdd3a8f85..2dd13ec925 100644
--- a/app/vmalert/notifier/alert.go
+++ b/app/vmalert/notifier/alert.go
@@ -191,7 +191,7 @@ func (a Alert) toPromLabels(relabelCfg *promrelabel.ParsedConfigs) []prompbmarsh
 	var labels []prompbmarshal.Label
 	for k, v := range a.Labels {
 		labels = append(labels, prompbmarshal.Label{
-			Name:  k,
+			Name:  promrelabel.SanitizeMetricName(k),
 			Value: v,
 		})
 	}
diff --git a/app/vmalert/notifier/alert_test.go b/app/vmalert/notifier/alert_test.go
index bff5359968..c2a51c3042 100644
--- a/app/vmalert/notifier/alert_test.go
+++ b/app/vmalert/notifier/alert_test.go
@@ -237,6 +237,11 @@ func TestAlert_toPromLabels(t *testing.T) {
 		[]prompbmarshal.Label{{Name: "a", Value: "baz"}, {Name: "foo", Value: "bar"}},
 		nil,
 	)
+	fn(
+		map[string]string{"foo.bar": "baz", "service!name": "qux"},
+		[]prompbmarshal.Label{{Name: "foo_bar", Value: "baz"}, {Name: "service_name", Value: "qux"}},
+		nil,
+	)
 
 	pcs, err := promrelabel.ParseRelabelConfigsData([]byte(`
 - target_label: "foo"
diff --git a/docs/CHANGELOG.md b/docs/CHANGELOG.md
index 9e2da5d25f..aa762fb13e 100644
--- a/docs/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/docs/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -59,6 +59,7 @@ The sandbox cluster installation is running under the constant load generated by
 * BUGFIX: [vmagent](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/vmagent.html): properly decode zstd-encoded data blocks received via [VictoriaMetrics remote_write protocol](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/vmagent.html#victoriametrics-remote-write-protocol). See [this issue comment](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/issues/5301#issuecomment-1815871992).
 * BUGFIX: [vmagent](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/vmagent.html): properly add new labels at `output_relabel_configs` during [stream aggregation](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/stream-aggregation.html). Previously this could lead to corrupted labels in output samples. Thanks to @ChengChung for providing [detailed report for this bug](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/issues/5402).
 * BUGFIX: [vmalert-tool](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/#vmalert-tool): allow using arbitrary `eval_time`  in [alert_rule_test](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/vmalert-tool.html#alert_test_case) case. Previously, test cases with `eval_time`  not being a multiple of `evaluation_interval` would fail.
+* BUGFIX: [vmalert](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/vmalert.html): sanitize label names before sending the alert notification to Alertmanager. Before, vmalert would send notifications with labels containing characters not supported by Alertmanager validator, resulting into validation errors like `msg="Failed to validate alerts" err="invalid label set: invalid name "foo.bar"`.
 * BUGFIX: [vmbackupmanager](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/vmbackupmanager.html): fix `vmbackupmanager` not deleting previous object versions from S3 when applying retention policy with `-deleteAllObjectVersions` command-line flag.
 * BUGFIX: [vminsert](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/Cluster-VictoriaMetrics.html): fix panic when ingesting data via [NewRelic protocol](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/#how-to-send-data-from-newrelic-agent) into VictoriaMetrics cluster. See [this issue](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/issues/5416).
 * BUGFIX: properly escape `<` character in responses returned via [`/federate`](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/#federation) endpoint. See [this issue](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/issues/5431).