Angel Merkel celebrates German election victory

Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) party has won Germany's election - but finished just short of an absolute majority, official results show.

Mrs Merkel earlier urged her party to celebrate "a super result", after exit polls suggested she was set to win a historic third term. Her party took about 42% of the vote.

But her former coalition partners, the liberal Free Democrats (FDP), won only 4.8%, meaning she might yet have to seek a grand coalition with the Social Democrats (SPD), who won about 26% of the vote.

Stephen Evans reports from Berlin.