The outcome of the US presidential election is on a knife edge, with Donald Trump and his rival Joe Biden neck and neck in key swing states.
Mr Trump, a Republican, claimed to have won and vowed to launch a Supreme Court challenge, baselessly alleging fraud.
Earlier Mr Biden, a Democrat, said he was “on track” to victory.
Millions of votes remain uncounted and no candidate can credibly claim victory as yet. There is no evidence of fraud.
More than 100 million people cast their ballots in early voting before election day on Tuesday – setting US on course for its highest turnout in a century.
With the nation on edge, the final result may not be known for days.
The president is projected to have held the must-win state of Florida – a major boost to his re-election bid.
But Mr Biden could snatch Arizona, a once reliably conservative state. Fox News and the Associated Press have projected Mr Biden will win that state and CBS News, the BBC’s US partner, said it was leaning the Democrat’s way.
A loss for Mr Trump in that once reliably Republican state would be a potentially serious setback.
Other key states such as Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan and North Carolina are toss-ups.
The BBC projects Mr Trump will win another conservative sunbelt state, Texas, where the Biden campaign had dreamed of an upset victory.
The Rust Belt battlegrounds of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin – which propelled Mr Trump to the White House four years ago – still look as though they could tip either way.
Pennsylvania, along with Florida, is considered a must-win for Mr Trump if he is to stave off defeat.
Cliffhanger counts are also under way in two more critical swing states on the East Coast, Georgia and North Carolina.
No surprises have emerged yet in the other states.
Mr Trump will keep hold of Ohio and Missouri, known as bellwether states because they have so often predicted the eventual winner, according to the BBC’s projection.
The BBC also projects Mr Trump will win Florida, Iowa, Montana, Alabama, Mississippi, Idaho, Wyoming, South Carolina, Kansas, Nebraska, Utah, Louisiana, Indiana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Kentucky, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Arkansas and West Virginia, all as expected.
Mr Trump is also projected by the BBC to win Nebraska, though Mr Biden picked up one vote there in the electoral college, which could turn out to be crucial.
Mr Biden will retain his home state of Delaware and the battleground state of Minnesota for Democrats, along with California, Virginia, New York, Rhode Island, Oregon, Washington, Illinois, New Hampshire, Connecticut, New Mexico, Colorado, Vermont, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Washington DC, according to BBC projections.
CBS projects Nevada, Maine and Hawaii were also trending towards Mr Biden.https://emp.bbc.com/emp/SMPj/2.36.2/iframe.htmlmedia captionHow much is Covid-19 an election issue?
National opinion polls before election day gave a firm lead to Mr Biden, but pointed to a closer race in the handful of states that are likely to decide the outcome.
Projections of state wins are based on a mixture of exit poll data and, in most cases, actual votes counted – and are only made where there is a high degree of certainty.
In the US election, voters decide state-level contests rather than an overall, single, national one.
Source BBC
