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

• A teenager carrying a Lego gun sparked a large-scale police operation, Reuters reported.
• A restaurant owner mistook the toy for a real weapon and called for emergency assistance.

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.