Bus seats mistaken for women in burqas

London: An anti-immigrant group is being mocked after its members mistook a photograph of six empty bus seats posted on its Facebook page for a group of women wearing burqas, media reports said.

Members of Norwegian Fedrelandet viktigst, or “Fatherland first”, posted comments like “tragic”, “terrifying” and “disgusting” beneath the photograph, according to Norway news website Nettavisen. Some members even wondered whether they might be carrying bombs or weapons beneath their clothes. “This looks really scary,” wrote one. “Should be banned. You can’t tell who’s underneath. Could be terrorists.”

“Islam is and always will be a curse,” “Get them out of our country – frightening times we are living in,” read some of the comments.

The photograph was posted “for a joke” last week by Johan Slåttavik, beneath a question asking the group: “What do we think of this?” He told Nettavisen he was “interested to see how people’s perceptions of an image are influenced by how others around them react. I ended up having a good laugh.”

The photo has gone viral in Norway after others shared screenshots of the nationalist group’s outraged reactions.

Norway recently became the latest European country to propose restrictions on wearing of burqas and niqabs in public places.