The man, from Kristianstad in southern Sweden, was arrested on Friday after a witness caught him snapping pics with a camera hidden in a shoulder-bag.

The witness was sitting on a balcony and could watch as the man approached several women in the centre of the town, according to reports in local newspaper Kvällsposten.

In one case the 46-year-old followed a girl of six-seven years of age walking with her mother and tried to take a photograph under the child’s skirt.

The man was arrested on Friday and was later released on Saturday but remains under suspicion pending further inquiries. Police have seized computers from his home.

Police have not yet been able to identify the women who have been subjected to the man’s unwanted photography.