Austria's centre-left looked to have won elections in the city state of Vienna on Sunday despite the far-right increasing its score and recording its best-ever result in the capital, projections showed.

The Social Democrats (SPOe), which have ruled Vienna uninterrupted since 1945, scored 39.5 percent, down 4.9 points, while the Freedom Party (FPOe) rose 5.1 points to 30.9 percent, projections based on 39 percent of votes showed.

Opinion polls before the election had forecast a much closer result, with even a victory for the FPOe on the back of unease among voters about Europe's migrant crisis.

The result, if confirmed, would in theory make possible a continuation of the SPOe's coalition in Vienna with the ecologist Greens, which won 11.6 percent of the vote, down 1.1 points.

The worst result was for the centre-right People's Party, the SPOe's coalition partner at federal level, which saw its score fall to 9.3 percent, below 10 percent for the first time.

Souece: AFP