diff --git a/src/raster/mdarray.rs b/src/raster/mdarray.rs
index 5cb453d6c..3d47874f9 100644
--- a/src/raster/mdarray.rs
+++ b/src/raster/mdarray.rs
@@ -162,6 +162,16 @@ impl<'a> MDArray<'a> {
         let rv = unsafe {
             let data_type = GDALMDArrayGetDataType(self.c_mdarray);
 
+            // HACK: this is too strict, but see https://github.com/georust/gdal/issues/290
+            if !self.datatype().class().is_numeric()
+                || self.datatype().numeric_datatype() != T::gdal_type()
+            {
+                return Err(GdalError::UnsupportedMdDataType {
+                    data_type: self.datatype().class(),
+                    method_name: "GDALMDArrayRead",
+                });
+            }
+
             let rv = gdal_sys::GDALMDArrayRead(
                 self.c_mdarray,
                 array_start_index.as_ptr(),
@@ -920,6 +930,8 @@ mod tests {
         let values = md_array.read_as::<u8>(vec![0, 0], vec![20, 20]).unwrap();
 
         assert_eq!(&values[..4], &[181, 181, 156, 148]);
+
+        assert!(md_array.read_as::<u16>(vec![0, 0], vec![20, 20]).is_err());
     }
 
     #[test]