Millions of people have signed a petition in the United Kingdom calling for a second EU referendum.

Key points: William Oliver Healey has created the petition, asking for another referendum

William Oliver Healey has created the petition, asking for another referendum The petition deadline is November 25, 2016

The petition deadline is November 25, 2016 Result has revealed divisions between young and old, north and south, cities and rural areas

Britain on Friday voted to break out of the European Union, in a thunderous decision that sent shockwaves across Europe and the rest of the world.

The final result showed 17.4 million people voted Leave, while 16.1 million people voted Remain.

Since then, a petition has been created by William Oliver Healey, calling for the "Government to implement a rule that if the remain or leave vote is less than 60 per cent based [on] a turnout of less than 75 per cent, there should be another referendum".

Turnout for the EU referendum was 72.2 per cent.

The petition gave a deadline of November 25, 2016, but just one day after the shock result, it attracted more than 1 million signatures with the number continuing to rise quickly.

By Sunday morning (local time) the signature had over 3 million signatures. ( Supplied )

At one point, the website crashed due to the surge of people adding their names.

A House of Commons spokeswoman confirmed the crash, saying it was because of "exceptionally high volumes of simultaneous users on a single petition — significantly higher than on any previous occasion".

The UK Government responds to all petitions that get more than 10,000 signatures and their Parliament considers all petitions that get more than 100,000.

The Parliament's Petitions Committee, which considers whether such submissions should be raised in the House of Commons, the lower house of Parliament, is to hold its next meeting on Tuesday (local time).

Result divides British people

A small group of Anti-Brexit protesters rally opposite Downing Street in central London. ( AFP: Geoff Caddick )

The referendum result revealed stark divisions between young and old, north and south, cities and rural areas, and university-educated people and those with fewer qualifications.

A map of the petition signatures showed that most came from England's major cities, topped by London where there is a separate petition calling on Mayor Sadiq Khan to declare the capital independent from the United Kingdom, and apply to join the EU.

A map showing the distribution of votes for the petition. ( Supplied )

In the wake of the result, young Britons who voted to remain part of the EU have also started using the hashtag #NotInMyName to express their feelings of betrayal and disappointment.

The idea of a second referendum was raised several times during campaigning for the vote.

UK Independence Party (UKIP) leader Nigel Farage said last month that there could be unstoppable demand for a second poll if the Remain camp won by a narrow margin.

"In a 52-48 referendum this would be unfinished business by a long way," he told the Daily Mirror newspaper.

Speaking to the BBC he added: "If we were to lose narrowly, there'd be a large section, particularly in the Conservative Party, who'd feel the Prime Minister is not playing fair".

"There would be a resentment that would build up if that was to be the result," he added.

But Leave figurehead Boris Johnson downplayed the idea of a new vote.

"I'm absolutely clear, a referendum is a referendum. It is a once in a generation, once in a lifetime opportunity and the result determines the outcome," he said.

"If we vote to stay, we stay, and that's it. If we vote to leave, we vote to leave, that's it. You can't have neverendums, you have referendums."

Opposition Leader Jeremy Corbyn, who is facing an internal rebellion in his Labour Party in the wake of the vote, has said that the result of the referendum must be respected.

ABC/AFP