diff --git a/releasenotes.md b/releasenotes.md
index 912f30507..875169097 100644
--- a/releasenotes.md
+++ b/releasenotes.md
@@ -126,6 +126,7 @@
 - Early exit in macro call crashes codegen #2820
 - Empty enums would return the values as zero sized arrays #2838
 - Store of zero in lowering did not properly handle optionals in some cases #2837
+- Bitstruct accidentally allowed other arrays than char arrays #2836
 
 ### Stdlib changes
 - Add `ThreadPool` join function to wait for all threads to finish in the pool without destroying the threads.
diff --git a/src/compiler/sema_decls.c b/src/compiler/sema_decls.c
index adb5793b3..6d6c35f80 100644
--- a/src/compiler/sema_decls.c
+++ b/src/compiler/sema_decls.c
@@ -1107,11 +1107,10 @@ static bool sema_analyse_bitstruct(SemaContext *context, Decl *decl, bool *erase
 		decl->strukt.little_endian = false;
 	}
 	Type *base_type = type->type_kind == TYPE_ARRAY ? type_flatten(type->array.base) : type;
-	if (!type_is_integer(base_type))
+	if (!type_is_integer(base_type) || (type->type_kind == TYPE_ARRAY && type_size(type->array.base) > 1))
 	{
-		SEMA_ERROR(decl->strukt.container_type, "The type of the bitstruct cannot be %s but must be an integer or an array of integers.",
-		           type_quoted_error_string(decl->strukt.container_type->type));
-		return false;
+		RETURN_SEMA_ERROR(decl->strukt.container_type, "The type of the bitstruct cannot be %s but must be an integer or an array of chars.",
+				type_quoted_error_string(decl->strukt.container_type->type));
 	}
 	Decl **members = decl->strukt.members;
 	unsigned member_count = vec_size(members);
diff --git a/test/test_suite/bitstruct/bitstruct_on_unresolved_decl.c3 b/test/test_suite/bitstruct/bitstruct_on_unresolved_decl.c3
index 46d282af8..0f0e90c0b 100644
--- a/test/test_suite/bitstruct/bitstruct_on_unresolved_decl.c3
+++ b/test/test_suite/bitstruct/bitstruct_on_unresolved_decl.c3
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
-bitstruct Foo : FixedBlockPool // #error:  The type of the bitstruct cannot be 'FixedBlockPool' but must be an integer or an array of integers
+bitstruct Foo : FixedBlockPool // #error:  The type of the bitstruct cannot be 'FixedBlockPool' but must be an integer
 {
 }
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/test/test_suite/bitstruct/bitstruct_other_int_array.c3 b/test/test_suite/bitstruct/bitstruct_other_int_array.c3
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..b248f1eba
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/test_suite/bitstruct/bitstruct_other_int_array.c3
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+bitstruct Foo2 : int[2] // #error: The type of the bitstruct cannot be 'int[2]' but must be an
+{
+    bool enable_version;
+}
+fn void main()
+{
+	Foo2 a2 = { };
+	Foo2 b2 = { .enable_version, };
+	if (!(a2 & b2)) return;
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/test/test_suite/bitstruct/invalid_bitstruct_type.c3 b/test/test_suite/bitstruct/invalid_bitstruct_type.c3
index d4d616ec0..d195909ce 100644
--- a/test/test_suite/bitstruct/invalid_bitstruct_type.c3
+++ b/test/test_suite/bitstruct/invalid_bitstruct_type.c3
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 
-bitstruct Test : float // #error: The type of the bitstruct cannot be 'float' but must be an integer or an array of integers.
+bitstruct Test : float // #error: The type of the bitstruct cannot be 'float' but must be an integer
 {
     int a : 1..3;
     int b : 5..10;