The shocking election victory by Republican Donald Trump has set off protests across the United States with people setting from the frustrating loss to a political outsider they considered unfit to assume the White House storming out onto the streets in anger.
In Seattle, a gunman opened fire and wounded five people, one man critically, near a protest site in the city where people gathered after the surprise victory of Trump over favourite Hillary Clinton on Wednesday evening.
The shooting did not appear to be connected to the anti-Trump demonstrations but instead stemmed from a personal argument, said Robert Merner, assistant chief of the Seattle Police Department.
"It appears that some type of argument took place. This individual began to walk away from the crowd, then turned and fired into the crowd," Robert Merner, assistant chief of the Seattle Police Department, told Reuters.
Police and witnesses said the scene of the shooting was less than a minute from the nerve centre of an anti-Trump demonstrations. The victims included one woman and one man was injured critically.
In many US cities, spontaneous anti-Trump protests took place after it was clear that a widely loathed Trump presidency had become a reality. The protesters chanted anti-Donald Trump slogans like "Not my President, not today," the CNN reported.
In Portland, protesters took to the streets shouting "No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA". Donald Trump's policies on immigration and many other controversial topics including a ban on Muslims entering the country, as well as pledge to prosecute political rivals, had all unnerved the populace.
There were as many as 5,000 protesters in New York on Wednesday night. There were groups of agitators near the White House in Washington and people gathered outside the Trump Tower in New York where the president-elect held the election night party.
Clinton supporters held a candlelight vigil in front of the White House on Wednesday evening.
Cities like Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Philadelphia, Portland and San Francisco also witnessed protests.
In downtown Manhattan, people walked down the Sixth Avenue holding banners that said "Not my president" "She got more votes" and "Hands off my pussy", the Guardian reported.
