International

A restaurant owner mistook a teenager's Lego gun for a real weapon, sparking a major police operation, reports say

police
Officers rushed to the scene in southern Germany. Photo by Fabian Sommer/picture alliance via Getty Images
Read in app

A restaurant owner in Germany mistook a boy's Lego gun for a real weapon, sparking a large-scale police response, Reuters reported

According to the news agency, authorities were called to the scene after the boy, who was dressed in a camouflage outfit, was spotted running nearby and holding what was thought to be a rifle. 

The incident took place in the southern German town of Lindau. "Of course, we had to go immediately," an officer from the Lindau police force told a German news outlet, per Reuters. 

Reuters reported that several patrol cars, as well as federal police, rushed to confront the unnamed teenager, only to find the gun was made from Lego bricks.

He has now been charged, according to Austrian news agency APA

Earlier this year, Lego asked a gun company to stop producing a product that looked like its toys, AP reported.  Lego said in a statement at the time that the Utah-based company had agreed to remove the product from its website and not sell anything similar in the future.

Read next

Zahra Tayeb was a markets reporter for Business Insider and regularly wrote about stocks, commodities, currencies and crypto. She previously covered business news, reporting on the global space industry, tech, retail and healthcarePrior to joining Business Insider, Zahra worked as an Editorial Intern at Wonderland Magazine. Previously, she was a freelance journalist for Women's Wear Daily and has interned for magazines and international broadcast news organisations including Condé Nast Traveller and BBC.Zahra is a graduate of King's College London.