A rare gold replica of the lunar space module has been stolen from the Armstrong Air and Space Museum in Ohio.

Police in Wapakoneta, in north-west Ohio, responded to an alarm at the museum just before midnight on Friday and discovered the 5in high, solid-gold replica had been stolen.

Replicas of the lunar excursion module produced by Cartier were presented to Neil Armstrong and his two fellow astronauts, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins, in Paris shortly after their historic space mission.

Armstrong, a Wapakoneta native, became the first person to step on to the moon's surface in July 1969.

The FBI and the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation are assisting Wapakoneta police in an investigation of the theft.

Armstrong died in 2012 at the age of 82.