Image copyright AFP/EPA Image caption The two face a run-off next month, but Mr Macron is seen as favourite
The centrist Emmanuel Macron will face far-right leader Marine Le Pen in a run-off for the French presidency on 7 May, multiple projections indicate.
Mr Macron leads with 23.7% in first round voting while Ms Le Pen won 21.7%, an Ipsos/Sopra Steria poll suggests.
Opinion polls in the run-up to the ballot consistently saw Mr Macron defeating his rival in the run-off.
The two fought off a strong challenge from centre-right François Fillon and hard-left Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
Another projection, from TF1/RTL, put Mr Macron and Ms Le Pen neck and neck in the first round. Final results are expected in the coming hours.
The French interior ministry said that with 20 million votes counted, Ms Le Pen led on about 24% of the vote. This would represent about half the vote, but does not include major cities.
Whoever wins the next round, the voting marks a shift away from the decades-long dominance of leftist and centre-right parties in French politics.
While Ms Le Pen has long been seen as likely to make the second round, Emmanuel Macron's rise has been swift. The BBC's Hugh Schofield says Mr Macron's likely victory is the story of the evening.
He told cheering supporters: "We have changed the face of French political life in one year."
A former banker, Mr Macron served as economy minister under current President Francois Hollande, quitting to launch a new party.
He has never stood for election before and if he wins would become France's youngest-ever president.
A pro-European, he has called for gradual deregulation of France's economy and a multi-billion dollar public investment plan.
As the projections came in, Ms Le Pen called herself "the candidate for the people", saying that the "survival of France" was at stake.
"The first step... has been taken," she said. "This result is historic,"
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Marine Le Pen: "I am calling on sincere patriots... to join me"
Ms Le Pen leads the Eurosceptic, anti-immigrant National Front party. She has attempted to soften the party's tone and brought big gains in the 2015 regional elections.
She has urged a shake-up of France's relations with the EU, calling for negotiations followed by a referendum.
Ms Le Pen also wants immigration to be slashed and the closure of "extremist" mosques.
Mr Macron is widely seen as favourite in the final round of voting, and in a sign of the uphill struggle Ms Le Pen faces he soon won high-profile endorsements.
Admitting defeat, François Fillon, whose campaign was rocked by corruption allegations, said there was "no other choice" but to vote for Mr Macron.
Projections give him around 19% of the vote, the same as Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who has so far only said he and his team do not "acknowledge the result on the basis of polls".
Benoit Hamon, the candidate of President Hollande's Socialist party said "I encourage everyone to fight as hard as they can to fight the extreme right, and to fight for Macron".
He endured a difficult night, forecast to win just 6%.
Turnout nationally appears to be similar to the last election in 2012, at about 80%.
Nearly 60,000 police and soldiers were deployed across the country to secure polling, with France still reeling from the shooting of a policeman on the Champs Elysees.
Alm_Baltz on April 23rd, 2017 at 18:39 UTC »
There are so many historic things about this election.
Le Pen would obviously be the fist female leader of France.
Macron would be the youngest leader since Napoleon Bonaparte.
The traditional Socialist-Conservative two party competition has been completely torn up with both their candidates only obtaining less than 30% of the vote. The far left, the far right, and a centrist who claims to want to break the left-right divide together and none of whom are of one of the two traditional sides together all got over 60% of the vote.
Exciting times.
EDIT: Current state from what I see:
From my map there is still zero results from the over 1,000,000 voters in Paris department but results from the departments around it are coming in and giving Macron a comfier edge over Fillion/closing the gap to Le Pen. Significant portions of the vote still to be counted too around the area: Paris (1,300,000 electorate) has zero votes counted, Senna-Saint Denis (over 700,000 electorate) is at 2%, Valle Della Marna (800,000 electorate)is at 6, Alta Senna (1,000,000) is at 22%. Le Pen is running around 3rd/4th in the departments around Paris.
Most of the votes are counted elsewhere, most importantly along the East and North where Le Pen has done best, mostly over 90% counted. Macron mostly got his votes from the west of the country, and did best in Brittany.
Current % of the vote is 24% Le Pen, 22% Macron, 19% Fillion, 18% Melechon. Almost exact with what polls showed with Macron and Le Pen reversed, but lots of room for that to change.
Effectively Macron and Le Pen have won, but in terms of dick measuring and crowing about who comes first (albeit meaningless) is still open.
HI_London on April 23rd, 2017 at 18:11 UTC »
Good. Predictable but still historic.
The real bloodbath will come during the legislative election. 95% of the seats are held by those who failed tonight. We're looking at the biggest shake-up in the history of the 5th Republic.
Socrates_Burrito on April 23rd, 2017 at 18:05 UTC »
All of that excitement only to get the most predictable result in what will likely be the least exciting second round matchup.