Swedish artist Erik Johansson creates incredible optical illusion in Stockholm square

This takes "Mind the Gap" to the next level.

For the last five days, citizens and visitors in Stockholm have been treated to an astonishing optical illusion in the city's Sergels torg central square. You can check out the breathtaking work of art below.

The illusion was created by Swedish artist Erik Johansson. On his website, Johansson writes that he has "always been quite fascinated by perspective illusions in my images and some time ago I got an idea of trying to realize one in a public space somewhere."

Johansson states that he wanted his illusion to be different from other popular street perspective tricks. "I wanted to try to make it as a photo instead of drawing and painting the streets. Photography is my medium and I wanted it to look as realistic as possible, just like my photos."

If the above video's runaway success on YouTube is any indication, Johansson more than achieved his objective. You can see footage of how the illusion was created and some reactions to it in the video below.