Who won the US election 2024: Final result as Kamala Harris and Donald Trump face off

The polls have closed in a historic between and .

In the hours ahead, we will discover who will be heading to the White House after a rollercoaster campaign that left the two candidates neck-and-neck in the polls ahead of the big vote on November 5.

Results early in the night show Donald Trump in the lead with a better-than expected performance in key states, though it is still too early to call.

The all-important swing states expected to tip the balance are Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona, North Carolina and Nevada.

The campaign was turned on its head in July this year when President Biden dropped out of the race following a disastrous TV debate performance. His campaign was effectively transferred to Vice President Harris, who replaced him as the Democratic party candidate.

In the same month, Donald Trump was shot at an open-air rally in Pennsylvania by 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks. The bullet, fired from the roof of a disused building nearby, punctured Trump's ear and narrowly missed his head before Crooks was himself shot dead by secret service agents. One person in the crowd also died and two people were left critically injured.

In September, Trump survived a second alleged assassination attempt while golfing at his club in West Palm Beach, Florida. Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, was arrested after he was spotted lurking in bushes outside the course with a rifle.