Biden supporters hold impromptu victory celebrations

Marcel Cothron celebrates Joe Biden’s victory (Jessie Wardarski/AP)

Americans have gathered on street corners and front lawns — honking horns, banging pots and pans, and starting impromptu dance parties — as a vitriolic election and exhausting four-day wait for results came to an end.

Just after The Associated Press and other news organisations declared that former vice president Joe Biden beat President Donald Trump, fireworks erupted in Atlanta.