Donald Trump will become the 45th US president after a stunning victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton, the Associated Press news agency reports.

The Republican nominee's projected victory came down to a handful of key swing states, despite months of polling that favoured Mrs Clinton.

The battlegrounds of Florida, Ohio and North Carolina cleared the way for his Brexit-style upset.

Global markets plummeted, with the Dow set to open 800 points down.

Donald Trump has just won the United States presidential election. Donald Trump is the new President of United States elect!

His victory has just set the world on a journey into the political unknown .Trump has become the first non-politician to win the White House since Eisenhower in 1952.

The Republican nominee has achieved one of the most improbable political victories in modern US history, despite a series of controversies that would easily have destroyed other candidacies, extreme policies that have drawn criticism from both sides of the aisle, a record of racist and sexist behaviour, and a lack of conventional political experience.