An online version of the British Museum in central London will be built using the popular game Minecraft after the institution appealed for volunteers to help create it.

The idea is part of its Museum Of The Future project and staff have gone online to find volunteers willing to take part.

The game, where players can build an entire world from scratch using different types of blocks, has millions of fans around the world.

The building, in Bloomsbury, was largely built in the 1850s and has had several extensions including the Great Court which was designed by Norman Foster and opened in 2000 complete with a spectacular glass roof.

In the past, scale replicas of the UK, as well as Westeros from the TV series Game Of Thrones have been recreated in the game.

The company behind Minecraft was bought last week by Microsoft for more than $2 billion.

Galleries and museums are increasingly turning to the internet in a bid to reach new audiences with podcasts and on-line exhibitions.

The University of Sheffield has built a virtual gallery with 14 different rooms which computer users can walk through with a standard keyboard and mouse or the new Oculus Rift 3D Virtual Reality headset.

Dr Steve Maddock, who worked on the project, said he wanted it to be "a digital taster" of the university's collection.

He said: "We wanted to find a way to ensure that they were no longer confined to their physical location - it seemed such a shame that many of our treasures could only be viewed by a few lucky people."