A Turkish newspaper has placed an ad at Istanbul's main airport saying that travellers to Sweden could be raped.

Pro-government daily Gunes placed the stark warning on two billboards at Ataturk Airport's International Terminal.

The ad read in Turkish and English: "Travel Warning! Did you know that Sweden has the highest rape rate worldwide?"

It appears to be a tit-for-tat over a headline this month at an Austrian airport and a subsequent tweet by a Swedish government official.

Stockholm's foreign minister posted that Turkey should respect child rights after a news ticker at the Vienna airport said: "Turkey allows sex with children under the age of 15".


Viyana'daki aynı havalimanından yeni bir provokasyon; "Türkiye 15 yaş altı çocuklarla cinsel ilişkiye izin veriyor" pic.twitter.com/qZSsMuUoRu — İsmail Türk (@ismiloo) August 13, 2016

The tabloid headline referred to last month's ruling by Turkey's constitutional court to ditch a law that defined all sexual activities with children as abuse.

The Vienna headline was widely shared on social media, prompting uproar among Turks.

Ankara's officials said the legislation was scrapped on a technicality and that parliament has six months to enact new measures.

The Turkish foreign ministry summoned diplomats from both countries over the incidents.

Ankara's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said it highlighted the "racism, anti-Islamic and anti-Turkish (attitude) in Europe".

Amid the fallout, the southern Turkish resort of Alanya scrapped its twinning arrangement with the Austrian town of Schwechat.

On Friday, the Swedish Embassy in Ankara suggested on its website that the rape claim was based on "misconceptions".

It said comparing reported rapes in Sweden to those in other countries "does not describe reality correctly" due to different legal and statistical systems.

It was not the first headline at Vienna airport to cause offence in Turkey.

At the beginning of August Ankara complained over another news ticker message that said: "If you go to Turkey, you are supporting (President) Erdogan."

Relations have frayed between Turkey and Europe since last month's attempted coup in which more than 270 people died.

Ankara accuses its European allies of not doing enough to support the elected government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.