Swedish police visit couple after passerby mistakes '21' balloon for 'IS' and believes they are Isis supporters

Police asked Fabian Åkesson and his girlfriend to take balloon down

A couple who hung up balloons in the shape of ‘21’ to celebrate a birthday was visited by police after someone mistook it for ‘IS’ and believed it was Isis propaganda.

Fabian Åkesson was visited by police in Karlskrona, in Sweden, on Monday after a passerby saw the balloons in reverse in the window, The Local reports.

"I laughed about it and they showed me a photo that they had taken where from their perspective, it did almost look like the letters IS," he told Swedish newspaper Kvällsposten.

However, he said police still asked him to take the balloons down, "to avoid further misunderstanding".

Ms Ericsson told The Local: "We understand why someone would report it if they thought it looked like Isis-propaganda, although everyone else just thought it looked like the number '12' from outside."