A bikini-clad Swedish police officer has been praised for tackling a suspected thief while she was off-duty sunbathing with friends in Stockholm.

Mikaela Kellner told the Aftonbladet daily that she and a fellow officer pursued the man when they realised he had taken one of their mobile phones.

She told the paper that she would have intervened "even if she were naked".

A photo of the incident on Kellner's Instagram page has attracted more than 9,000 likes in less than two days.

The incident is said to have taken place in Stockholm's Ralambshov Park on Wednesday, where the off-duty policewoman was sunbathing with friends.

The group was approached by a man who claimed to be selling publications on behalf of the homeless.

Kellner reportedly became suspicious when the man began lingering, setting some papers down over their blanket.

As soon as he left, collecting his papers, one of her friends noticed that her phone was missing.

"There was no time, so I ran after him, maybe 15 metres or so," Kellner told Swedish news site, The Local.

"One of my friends is also a police officer, so we got hold of him. He tried to get away so we held onto him harder."

The stolen phone was swiftly recovered, and the man was arrested by a police patrol.

"I've had a lot of positive comments both from friends and colleagues," she told The Local.

"It happens all the time that valuables are taken like this... I mainly just wanted to raise awareness of how cunning these people are, almost like magicians."