Centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron has decisively won the French presidential election, projected results say.

Mr Macron defeated far-right candidate Marine Le Pen by about 65% to 35% to become, at 39, the country’s youngest president, the results show. His victory means France will stay in Europe.

If confirmed, he will also become the first president from outside the two traditional main parties since the modern republic’s foundation in 1958.

A bitterly fought election concluded on Sunday amid massive security.

Mr Macron’s supporters have gathered to celebrate in central Paris.

Mr Macron told Agence France-Presse that a “new chapter of hope and confidence was opening”.

The Macron team said that the new president had had a “cordial” telephone conversation with Ms Le Pen.

In a speech she thanked the 11 million people who had voted for her. She said the election had shown a division between “patriots and globalists” and called for the emergence of a new political force.

President François Hollande congratulated Mr Macron and said the result showed the French people wanted to unite around the “values of the republic”.

The BBC’s Hugh Schofield in Paris says this is the most remarkable success story of how a man who three years ago was utterly unknown to the French public, through sheer self-belief, energy – and connections – forged a political movement that has trounced all the established French political parties./CNN