TEL AVIV (AFP) - Municipality workers and volunteers in Israel's coastal city of Tel Aviv have built a 36m tower of Lego bricks designed to set a new world record.

It was constructed from more than half a million of the brightly coloured plastic bricks donated by the city's residents.

The project was launched just over a year ago by teachers of eight-year-old Omer Sayag who died of cancer in 2014, and who used to build Lego towers during his illness.

The tower was raised in sections opposite the Tel Aviv municipality building in Rabin Square.

According to Guinness World Records, the previous record was set in 2015 when the Italian subsidiary of Lego built a 35.05m tower for the Milan World Expo.

A municipality spokesman told AFP that proof including pictures shot from a drone will now be submitted to Guinness to verify the city's claim of a new record.