The newspaper front page that sums up Europe's reaction to Trump victory

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While European leaders offered President-elect Donald Trump muted congratulations on his win, the continent's media may their feelings known with a series of outraged and bewildered front pages.

French president Francois Hollande warned that the Republican's election meant Europe faced a “period of uncertainty” but offered his congratulations “as it is natural to do between two heads of democratic states”.

Meanwhile German Chancellor Angela Merkel offered Mr Trump “close cooperation” on the condition that he maintain respect for the mutual values of “democracy, freedom, respect for the law and for the dignity of human beings, independently of origin, skin colour, religion, gender, sexual orientation or political views” that the two countries share.

But the European media was not so diplomatic with French newspaper Liberation dubbing Mr Trump “American Psycho” – a reference to the book and film about a murderous stockbroker whose hero was the real estate mogul.

Meanwhile German newspaper Die Welt said the world was upside down following the reality star’s victory.

Norway’s Aftenposten went a step further by declaring it was “scared now” and it was hard not to be “when the world has gone crazy”.

Other European newspapers such as Spain’s El Pais highlighted what Mr Trump stood for by saying the US was now in the “grip of aggressive populism”.

The print edition of German tabloid Bild was calmer with a vow to “manage” Mr Trump’s presidency even though its online arm had lead with “how could this happen” for much of Wednesday.

It comes as protests have erupted throughout the US at Mr Trump's election with angry demonstrators chanting "Not My President" outside Trump Tower in New York.

Other demonstrations erupted in the Clinton-supporting West coast cities such as San Francisco, LA, Seattle and Portland.

While rural America overwhelmingly opted for Mr Trump, 31 out of 35 major US cities choose Ms Clinton.

Ms Clinton won the most votes overall but Mr Trump's support was spread out across over several states while Ms Clinton's was concentrated in big Democrat voting places like California.

The electoral college system means each state is given a number of electors according to its population size. Whichever candidate gets 270 of these electors, out of a total of 538, wins the presidency.