A man dressed in a shark costume has reportedly been arrested under Austria's new anti-face-covering laws while working as a mascot.
The man was standing outside electronics store, McShark, in Vienna, when the police arrived, reports the Daily Mail.
The paper reports that it is thought the man was reported to police by a member of the public who wanted to make a point of the new laws being enforced.
Police officers demanded he removed his mask and when he said he was 'just doing his job', they reportedly arrested him and handed him a fine.
Credit: Warda Network
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Warda Network, an advertising agency working with the store, wrote on its Facebook page: "Today we were at the McShark store opening and our shark mascot received a fine from the Vienna police because of the new ban on face-coverings. Life is not easy."
The new legislation, widely labelled a 'burka ban', makes wearing full face coverings illegal and empowers police to stop anyone wearing them.
Credit: Warda Network
Austrian cops can now use force to remove them from anyone covering their head between the chin and the forehead, with wearers incurring a fine of €150 (£132).
The law also prohibits surgical masks, ski masks, clown make-up, as well as the balaclavas.
Austria joins France and Belgium in banning the veil, with a similar law currently under discussion in the Dutch parliament.
Burkas and niqabs, the most common forms of Islamic face coverings, are worn by a tiny minority of female Muslims, with the vast majority preferring the more commonly seen hijab or no covering at all.
Austria's Muslims are overwhelmingly of Turkish, Bosnian and Albanian descent, countries in which the veil has never been a large part of the practice of Islam.
Credit: PA
Burkas are one-piece veils that cover the whole upper body, with a mesh screen that allows the wearer to see, while niqabs are face veils that are worn alongside the hijab headscarf.
According to Carla Amina Bhagajati, a representative of the Islamic Religious Community in Austria, the new law criminalises Austrian women for following their religion and leaves Muslim women who choose to wear the veil 'restricted to their homes.'
"This open society is, in a hypocritical way, endangering its own values," Bhagajati told the Telegraph.
The move to ban the veil comes in the middle of an election campaign in which anti-immigrant parties may end up forming a coalition in government.
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Sources: Daily Mail, Telegraph
Topics: World News, Austria, Politics