One of the web's most popular websites has been thrown into chaos by a rebellion sparked by the sacking of a popular staff member.

The unpaid moderators of some of link-sharing site Reddit's most-read sections have temporarily hidden them from public view.

They include the sections - known as subreddits - for movies, books, gaming and science.

It comes after Reddit employee Victoria Taylor was dismissed in mysterious circumstances. Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian has now apologised to the Reddit community for the situation, and asked for moderators to end their protest.

Ms Taylor was in charge of the 'ask me anything' (AMA) question and answer sessions which have seen the likes of Barack Obama and Bill Gates grilled by Reddit users.

But she was unexpectedly fired from her role this week, leading many of the site's moderators to disrupt Reddit in protest.

The books section moderator 'imakuram' said: "This seems to be a seriously stupid decision. We have several AMAs upcoming in books and have no idea how to contact the authors."

One of the top-rated comments on a discussion of her departure said: "I've been browsing Reddit for damn near seven years now and never in its history have I genuinely thought that the people in charge were ******* morons until now.

"Yeah they weren't always perfect, yea they ****** up once in a while, but overall it seemed they knew what they were doing.

"In the past few months that's all gone out the window, it's like this website is being run by clowns.

"'Let's fire the person who keeps our fourth largest subreddit functional and not tell anyone involved! That'll be funny, right guys? Honk honk.'"

Some users have speculated whether it was the disastrous AMA with the Reverend Jesse Jackson this week that triggered Ms Taylor's departure.

In it, one user asked: "How much money have you extorted from various people and companies over the years of practicing your shakedown scheme? Do you think Al Capone would be jealous of your business model if he were still alive?"

But others say her departure was due to a disagreement with management over the commercialisation of AMA.

Reddit has around 163 million monthly unique users.

It recently appointed Ellen Pao as chief executive, who banned five forums last month in a harassment crackdown.

She was recently left with a £543,000 legal bill after losing a discrimination case against her former employer.