AN underground bunker in Warburton, built to monitor a nuclear holocaust, has been sold on an Internet auction site for more than £8,000 to a mystery bidder - and could now become a visitor attraction.

The bunker was sold last week after attracting 40 bids on eBay, eventually being bought for £8,401 by an enthusiast of Cold War history who hopes to restore the bunker to its former glory.

The midlands-based buyer wants to remain anonymous but told the Guardian that he is now working to secure funding to restore the bunker, which has been stripped of all its former fittings.

He said: "I wanted to make sure it wasn't destroyed or sold off and hopefully once I have restored it, I will be able to open it up to the public."

The sale has attracted huge interest and could even have become a site for an audacious attempt to enter space.

Chartered surveyors JH Walter, who sold the bunkers, say they received a call from a man interested in using the site as a launch pad for an attempt to send himself into orbit.

A spokesman for the company said: "A guy spoke to us who was interested in using the site as an attempt to be the first private person to launch themselves into space.

"But unfortunately when he went to look at the site he realised there were too many houses and hedges around that he might have set fire to and therefore he would not have got planning permission."

The bunker, one of 13 for sale around the country, was built in the 1950s to protect a three-man team at a depth of 15 feet below the surface.

The teams monitored the progress of a nuclear attack and were equipped with a Ground Zero Indicator which projected the image of the fireball on to photographic paper.

They were finally decommissioned in 1992 following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War.