Presidential debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton most tweeted event in history

Mr Trump claimed his opponent should be in jail and accused former US President Bill Clinton of being abusive to women

Twitter has said the debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton was the most tweeted ever, with more than 17 million debate-related posts sent.

In the debate, one of the most acrimonious in US TV history, Mr Trump claimed his opponent should be in jail and accused former US President Bill Clinton of being "abusive to women".

The Republican candidate met women who have accused Mr Clinton of rape and other unwanted sexual advances shortly before the debate and claimed Mrs Clinton should be "ashamed" for attacking her husband's accusers.

He also defended a 2005 video recording in which he was heard making lewd comments about women, describing his remarks as "locker room talk".

"I have great respect for women," Mr Trump said. "Nobody has more respect for women than I do.

"I'm very embarrassed by it. I hate it. It's locker room talk."

Here are the key moments of how social media users interacted with the debate:

• Mr Trump dominated conversation on Twitter, with 64% of related posts mentioning him.
• The top tweeted moments of the debate were Mr Trump saying he disagrees with his running mate Mike Pence in regard to Syria policy, Mr Trump saying he is a gentleman and Mr Trump saying Mrs Clinton would be in jail in his administration.
• Mrs Clinton gained 25,000 followers while Mr Trump gained 16,000 followers.
• The top retweeted tweet (more than 50,000 retweets) during the debate was by Moustafa Bayoumi, who wrote: "I'm a Muslim, and I would like to report a crazy man threatening a woman on a stage in Missouri. £debate"
• There were more tweets about Mr Trump's treatment of women than tweets regarding any area of policy.
• The most tweeted-about policies during the debate were - in order - terrorism, foreign affairs, the economy, healthcare and guns.

The key moments in the debate were:

Here are key moments from the live televised debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in the race for the White House.

Donald Trump apologises for his "locker room talk".

The tape recording of Mr Trump in which he talks about grabbing women "by the p***y" plunged his campaign into turmoil - making the debate even more eagerly anticipated.

"This was locker room talk. I'm not proud of it. I've apologised to my family. I've apologised to the American people. Certainly I'm not proud of it, but this is locker room talk," he said.

Mr Trump also said he has "great respect" for women.

Hillary Clinton on the Trump tape

The Democratic candidate said the comments about women made in the tape by Mr Trump represent "exactly who he is".

Mrs Clinton said he had insulted women throughout the presidential campaign, saying: "What we all saw and heard on Friday was Donald talking about women, what he thinks about women, what he does to women, and he has said that the video doesn't represent who he is, but I think it's clear to anyone who heard it that it represents exactly who he is, because we've seen this through the campaign.

"We've seen him insult women, we've seen him rate women on their appearance, ranking them from one to 10, we've seen him embarrass women on TV and on Twitter."

Donald Trump targets Bill Clinton

The Republican candidate met women who have accused former US president Bill Clinton of rape and other unwanted sexual advances just over an hour before he faced Hillary Clinton in the televised showdown.

The Trump pre-debate event was thought to be a sign that he planned to use Mr Clinton as a distraction from the controversy over his own predatory remarks about women.

During the debate he said "there's never been anybody in the history of politics in this nation that's been so abusive to women" as Mr Clinton.

Hillary Clinton takes inspiration from Michelle Obama

After Donald Trump's accusations about her husband, Hillary Clinton said a lot of what he had said was "not right".

She said what came to mind was advice from friend First Lady Michelle Obama - "When they go low, you go high".

Mrs Clinton said everyone can draw their own conclusions about whether Mr Trump respects women.

Donald Trump says Hillary Clinton should be in jail

Mr Trump said Mrs Clinton should be in jail over her use of a private email server while she was US secretary of state.

He said: "I hate to say it but if I win I'm going to instruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation."

In response, Mrs Clinton said: "It's just awfully good that someone with the temperament of Donald Trump is not in charge of the law in this country."

And Mr Trump replied: "Because you'd be in jail."

Kind words

The final question in the debate drew a chuckle from the two candidates as they were asked to think of something they respected about each other.

Mrs Clinton said: "I respect his children. His children are incredibly able and I think that says a lot about Donald."

Mr Trump said: "I will say this about Hillary - she doesn't quit, she doesn't give up. I tell it like it is. She's a fighter."

No initial handshake

When the candidates were introduced to the audience, they did not shake hands when they arrived on stage.

Instead, the pair stood side by side before the debate kicked off.

But they shook hands after 90 minutes of tense exchanges.