A fan looks at a shrine to Michael Jackson outside HMV in Leicester Square

Michael Jackson has topped the album chart six years after his last No 1 as British fans constructed make-shift shrines to remember their idol.

His greatest hits album, Number Ones, took the top spot after a surge in sales saw record shop shelves stripped of his work.

Music retailer HMV admitted that despite bringing in extra stock to cope with demand, many branches had been emptied of Jackson albums since his death following a cardiac arrest at his rented Los Angeles home on Thursday night.

Distraught fans who had been eagerly anticipating his planned farewell series of 50 shows at London's O2 Arena travelled from all over the country to gather at various locations in London linked to the star.

Fans pasted posters and lit candles on the windows of HMV in London's Piccadilly Circus.

Sean O'Kane came up with the idea for the memorial and said he chose the store because Jackson was often spotted shopping there when in London.

He said: "It is mainly a place for fans who are in mourning where we can be there for each other at this really difficult time. It has helped me to find some closure. I was dumbstruck when I heard the news, I was walking about in a daze, everything was going in slow motion."