A couple with baby twins went to such extraordinary lengths to keep their children’s room cool during the heatwave that they received a visit from the police suspecting they might be operating a cannabis factory.

A plain-clothes detective knocked on the door of the couple’s flat in Weston-super-Mare - only to discover what they had been told was a cannabis growing factory was actually a nursery of a very different kind.

A picture of the outside of the couple’s babies’ window had been posted on a Facebook ‘spotted’ page with the anonymous poster commenting: “Very strange choice in window coverings in the new flats on the airfield”.

Two windows of the flat in the new Haywood Village development on the outskirts of Weston had been covered in foil, and one of the windows was open with a pipe sticking out of it.

The post was widely shared in and around Weston-super-Mare, with more than 120 comments, many speculating that the picture showed what appeared to be a cannabis factory.

The picture was posted at around 4.30pm and quickly went viral in Weston, prompting the police to act.

They visited the property within a couple of hours and discovered the reality was very different.

Instead of growing cannabis, the young couple inside were growing humans - two of them, and the mother of the baby twins posted under the picture that they have ‘had fun reading the comments’.

The young mum, who wished to remain anonymous, told Bristol Live she had no idea a picture of her home-made baby cooling system had caused such a stir, until there was a knock at the door and a man introduced himself as a police officer.

“He showed his badge and I laughed as I knew what it would be about, as we were aware that the foil looked conspicuous,” she said.

“I invited him in and introduced him to our twin girls, explaining that the foil was to block out the sun and help to keep the room cool for the girls.

“I also explained that the hose was for our air con. He apologised and said he felt embarrassed, but we said that it’s his job to investigate and it did look, rather too obviously, suspicious. He took a look at the girl’s nursery and left,” she added.

The mum, whose twin girls are just six months old, then went onto Spotted Weston to see the picture of her handiwork was still causing a stir, and tried to explain what was going on.

“Foil is a simple, effective and cheap way to keep the bedrooms cool for our baby twins,” she wrote.

“The hose is our air con. We’ve had fun reading the comments though,” she added.

Then Avon and Somerset police wrote a post on Facebook to reassure the suspicious people of Weston-super-Mare that all was well, confirming the mum’s explanation.

“You may have a seen a post on the Spotted Weston-super-mare Facebook page in which concerns were raised about a potential cannabis factory after a photo was posted of a flat in the Haywood village area of Weston-super-Mare,” a spokesperson said.

“We've been round and looked into it and the foil on the windows is being used as a blackout blind to keep the sun out and the hosepipe coming out of the window is in fact an air conditioning unit to try and keep the flat cool - so there's no cause for concern,” she added.