A church group in Sweden is planning to drop thousands of electronic Bibles over parts of Iraq controlled by Islamic State.

“The Bibles are the size of pill boxes and have a display,” said Christian Åkerhielm from the Livets Ord (Word of Life) group in an interview with SVT. “They require no electricity, but work on their own.”

The church said on its website: “Our ambition is to pass on the hope and love that can fit in the Christian gospel to a population living in closed areas where human rights are denied.”

"We start our project in a few weeks and hope to drop thousands of Bibles," it added. The drop will be carried out by another group on Livets Ord’s behalf, who will be using drones to deliver the devices from high altitude.