Following public outrage, an Austrian businessman on Thursday announced that he would remove so called "sexist" urinals from a public toilet near Vienna's national opera. The urinals are shaped like a woman's mouth, featuring lipsticked lips, teeth and a bright red tongue.

The politicians and members of several women affairs groups denounced the urinals as "misogynistic and offensive."

Sonja Wehsely, a social democrat and head of the Vienna Department of Women's Affairs, told the AP that the department was seeking legal action against the owner.

However, Neuhold Gerhard, owner of the toilet's operator Neuhold Gerhard Limited, called the sudden reaction against the urinals "odd" since the toilets have been in place for the past three years, and no man has said anything about them.

Even so "if there is such outrage in Austria then it's not a problem. We will remove them in the next 14 days," he said in an interview with Austrian public radio.