Exit polls have just been made available and they all give different numbers - to the point we cannot confidently say which party has come out on top.

France Télévisions gives the National Rally between 120 and 160 seats - if that's correct then this is a surprise defeat for the RN, which would have come third.

Two other polls, including France's biggest private channel TF1 and from RTL/M6 suggest RN has come second. One other projection gives RN the biggest number of seats, but that may be an outlier.

However, what is clear is that France is heading for a hung parliament with no single bloc controlling a majority. The picture will become clearer in the next few hours as actual results come trickling in - we will bring you those as we get them.

That's it, voting is now closed in France.

Projections are due imminently, stay with us.

As France waits to see the outcome of this election, people have been gathering in Place de la République in Paris - the scene of many demonstrations over the years.

Stick with us, we will bring you the projections, reactions and what it all means.

Nearly there.

Image source, Reuters

As we've already reported, an extra 30,000 police have been deployed across France to prepare for any unrest - 5,000 of them are in the capital, Paris.

These pictures show heavily armed officers guarding the building of the French National Assembly.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

It's nearly time - votes can be cast for another 30 minutes in cities across France (they closed a few hours ago in some rural locations).

Shortly after 20:00 local time (19:00 BST) we will get the winner projections.

Azadeh Moshiri
Reporting from Auxerre

In Auxerre, a small town in Burgundy, the National Rally has dominated local politics since 2020.

Here, the incumbent National Rally candidate Daniel Grenon won more than 40% of the vote.

But it wasn’t always that way. Auxerre used to be fertile ground for the left, with a Socialist mayor for nearly two decades. Yet, the town decided it needed to change course, and that life had simply become too costly, and too difficult.

That feeling is spreading like wildfire across the country.

One retiree, who asked to remain anonymous, tells me he is “allergic to Macron” and believes the president is “arrogant”.

He used to vote for the Socialists, but as he saw public services deteriorate, that changed.

He wonders how money can go to Ukraine “when we don’t have enough for people here” and wishes France could leave the EU.

National Rally's messaging, he says, won him over.

Paul Kirby
Europe digital editor in Paris

We've already mentioned windows being boarded up in Paris, and it's happening in other cities too.

At an Yves Rocher cosmetics store on the iconic Champs-Élysées, staff said they were merely taking precautions, as they do whenever there is a risk of protest.

Ultra-right as well as ultra-left protesters are known to be active in Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Nantes and other cities. But in smaller towns too there's a risk of spontaneous unrest. Greens leader Marine Tondelier appealed for people to look out for each other.

Of the 30,000 extra police deployed for today's second round, 5,000 are in Paris and its suburbs.

Supporters of the left-wing New Popular Front are planning to rally in the Place de la République and police are clearly preparing for potential clashes.

US tourist Arthur Leopold was staying in a hotel near Place de la République when he was told he had to find another place to stay.

"Our hotel was just off République Square and the cop standing outside told us to move hotels because there would be mass riots," he told the BBC.

Ido Vock
Reporting from Bordeaux

Image source, Getty Images

I’m in Bordeaux, which is in the western region of Gironde.

During the 2022 election, seven of its 12 constituencies went to President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist allies. Three went to left-wing parties and two to the far right.

Now, in line with national trends, Gironde looks likely to punish Macron’s centrist Ensemble alliance and return more MPs from the far-right National Rally (RN) and left-wing New Popular Front (NFP).

What strikes me in conversations with voters is how banal many find the idea of an RN government.

The RN is a movement characterised by the mainstream parties which have ruled France since World War Two as a danger to democracy - racist and xenophobic.

But supporters of both the NFP and Ensemble told me that while they are worried about the far right taking power for the first time since World War Two, they think France’s democratic institutions and constitution will limit what the party can do if it were to take power.

“This isn’t the 1930s” is a sentence that comes up again and again.

That in itself is a striking win for Marine Le Pen, who has worked for years to make her party more palatable to mainstream voters after decades in the political wilderness.

Win or lose today, she has seemingly succeeded in her decade-long effort to detoxify her party.

Chris Bockman
Reporting from Toulouse

There are few grander buildings in France to vote in than the city hall in Toulouse. This is where the mayor works and where people who live in the city centre cast their ballots.

President Macron's centrist party had several MPs in the region including one minister, until he called these elections.

The minister, Dominique Faure, withdrew after the first round to try and stop the far right from winning in her constituency, and the region has turned into a battleground between the left coalition and the far right.

At the moment the main square opposite the town hall, Place du Capitole, is festive with tourists and locals basking in the sun, but this evening it will be cordoned off, as authorities fear political protests could turn violent.

Image source, Gerry

People in French overseas territories have already voted and some of the results have been announced.

In the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, four left-wing incumbents held off challenges from the far-right National Rally. In French Polynesia, pro-autonomy candidates have been elected, according to estimates.

In New Caledonia, a Pacific territory that has been the focus of recent violence, one of the two seats went to a conservative who supports continued ties with France. In the other constituency, a pro-independence leader won.

A far-right candidate won a seat in the Indian Ocean department of La Réunion.

It's just gone 18:00 in France.

Polls are open for another two hours in the cities - they are now closing in some rural locations.

We will get the projections shortly after 20:00 (19:00 BST).

Image source, Reuters

Whoever wins, Macron has said he will not resign as president. In a letter to the French people published a week ago, he said he would stay on until his term ends in 2027.

However, if his party loses, and either National Rally or the New Popular Front win outright, that leaves almost three years of “cohabitation”, or power-sharing – meaning the president of one party heads the state and another party runs the government.

It’s happened before, with domestic policy in the hands of the prime minister and foreign and defence policy in the hands of the president.

If there is no absolute majority – a likely scenario – the president will need to negotiate with other players to put together a government and choose a prime minister. This would leave the government in a shaky position and it may not survive long.

Alexandra Fouché
Reporting from Nice

I’m in on the beautiful Promenade des Anglais in Nice where the weather is glorious for those voting today.

This area has traditionally voted for the right and the far-right, but more importantly in this election, this is Eric Ciotti territory.

He is the leader of the Républicains - a traditionally right-wing party - who struck an alliance with the National Rally after the first round, sparking an outcry in the ranks of his normally moderate party.

In the first round of the vote, Ciotti received more than 40% of the vote ahead of the left-wing alliance, NFP and the Macron alliance.

One woman, who didn’t want to stop to be interviewed, described the current political situation as “catastrophic”.

Another, Céline, who is 51 and a nurse, lives in Antibes and voted “for the centre” using a proxy vote in her constituency in Brittany.

“I voted by elimination, not for the extremes. I think what is going on at the moment is a process of divide and rule. People are pitted against each other, and it’s a shame.”

Céline says she has no opinion on whether Macron made the right decision (of calling snap parliamentary elections) and has no particular expectations of who will be in government on Monday.

“I think we will have a cohabitation government which will be very complicated.”

Image source, Getty Images

This is an extremely tense election day. Last month President Macron warned of a risk of "civil war".

On Thursday Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin reported 51 physical attacks against candidates or party activists in the run-up to the second round.

An extra 30,000 police have been deployed incase "the ultra-left or the ultra-right use the result as an excuse to wreak havoc", Darmanin said.

Many shop windows across France have been boarded up. That was also the case during last Sunday's first round, but no significant violence was reported.

In some cities, public transport will stop at 20:00 (19:00 BST), when voting ends and first estimates emerge.

Henri Astier
Live reporter

The striking feature France's politics today - apart from the unprecedented strength of the far right - is that it is no longer a left-right contest.

This election is a three-way duel between left-wingers, pro-Macron centrists, and the hard right. Think of it as a scene from a Tarantino movie where each gunman has to keep an eye on two deadly rivals. Versions of that fight have been been playing out in 577 constituencies all over France for the past week.

To make it to the second round, a candidate must gather enough in the first. Runs-off have traditionally been between two candidates. But this time around a whopping 306 constituencies have seen three candidates qualify (there were only eight such "triangulaires" races in the last election in 2022 and just one in 2017).

Tactical withdrawals have reduced the number of three-way battles to 89.

But that is still a huge number - and there are two four-way races.

This makes the result harder to predict than ever. Only when the dust settles we will know who has survived.

The latest figures show that turnout at 17:00 (16:00 BST) was 59,71% - the highest since 1981 and slightly higher than in the first round last Sunday.

Polls close in just under three hours, at 20:00 (19:00 BST).

Azadeh Moshiri
Reporting from Auxerre

Image source, Getty Images

Here in Auxerre, the National Rally’s incumbent candidate, Daniel Grenon, has become embroiled in a racism scandal that has made headlines across the country.

He told a local paper “some North Africans have come to power,” but “these people have no place holding high positions”.

He insisted he was misquoted, but that was swiftly disproven once the newspaper released a recording.

In a televised debate, Jordan Bardella was pressed on whether he still supported Grenon. He said when he has “four or five black sheep in his party”, he expels them.

One voter, Anne, tells me disavowing Grenon, and other candidates embroiled in scandal, is the bare minimum. She says, “they'd need to totally disavow them, and exclude them from the elections, which hasn’t happened”. A mother passing by says the comments are unacceptable.

Yet residents have mixed feelings. One man, who wished to stay anonymous, says he’s met Grenon, who is a decent man, and people make mistakes.

Either way, it’s polling day and Daniel Grenon, and other “black sheep”, are still the party’s candidates on the ballot.

Paul Kirby
Europe digital editor in Paris

Image source, LUDOVIC MARIN/POOL/AFP

It was Emmanuel Macron who called these elections, but if his centrist alliance comes third as expected, his position as president is safe.

He was elected for a second term only two years ago and has said he won't resign. So he's probably going to remain head of state until 2027 and will most likely keep control of defence and foreign policy.

For the man he picked as prime minister only seven months ago, Gabriel Attal, it's a totally different story. He may have just a few hours left as head of Macron's centrist government, depending on this evening's result.

Even though he's the most popular politician in France, Attal is the face of the Ensemble alliance and his party won't be forming the next government. There's a small chance he may stay for the Paris Olympics, but his opponents won't want him to.

Since 2002, the prime minister has always come from the president's party, because the parliamentary vote has always followed on from the presidential election. But Macron has almost certainly brought that to an end, until France goes back to that process in 2027.

Andrew Harding
Reporting from Marseille

In the southern port of Marseille, the issue of immigration has been a particularly polarising issue in these elections.

The city always had a large and diverse immigrant population and has recently seen a surge of gang-related violence, with 47 murders reported last year. Support for President Macron’s centrist party collapsed in the first round.

The right-wing National Rally party is already popular across the south of France, with many voters blaming “uncontrolled” immigration – particularly from north Africa - for Marseille’s high crime rate.

“Our country has changed too much. We need more selective immigration. They’re dealing drugs just over there. All the youths have knives,” said Franck Bochet, a pensioner driving through a poorer neighbourhood in northern Marseille.

But Jonathan Kwame, a French student getting his hair cut in a barber’s shop near the old port, accused the National Rally and right-wing media of spreading lies.

“The party is trying to divide the French… with disinformation. I think it will get worse. It could become very dangerous if it continues,” he said.

On a concrete sports field surrounded by high-rise council flats, dozens of children were playing football and archery at a recent event funded by the French authorities. One of the organisers, Yasmina Hellal, said she was alarmed by growing support for the National Rally and its anti-immigrant policies.

“This is not the France I dream of. For me, France is a welcoming country. Welcoming to everyone. A melting pot, like England. It shouldn’t matter where you come from. And it’s sad to see that starting to change,” said Hellal.

At a small bar in central Marseille, the Nigerian owner, Prince Iroghama, hoped the current mood of polarisation would pass.

“Politics is just a game. I feel welcome here. I have a family. I have a business… I pay taxes. I just want to make a better future for my children,” he said.

Image source, Reuters

President Macron and his wife Brigitte have cast their votes at a polling station in Le Touquet-Paris-Plage, a small seaside town in northern France.