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Democratic presidential contender Bernie Sanders has raised $34.5m (£26.2m) since suffering a heart attack in October, his campaign has announced.

The haul surpasses Mr Sanders' previous quarterly totals and is the highest of any Democrat in this election cycle.

But his war chest was eclipsed by President Donald Trump, whose campaign said it drew in $46m, smashing its previous 2020 fundraising record.

The White House race begins in earnest next month with the Iowa caucuses.

The Democratic White House hopefuls will battle it out in a series of state-by-state votes nationwide before the eventual winner is crowned at the party convention in July. He or she is expected to face Mr Trump, a Republican, in November's presidential election.

In addition to the latest totals, the Sanders campaign also announced on Thursday that over five million individual people had donated.

The best month was December when 1.8m donations were made with an average amount of $18.53.

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Two other Democratic front-runners, Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren, have not yet reported their fundraising totals, which is usually not a promising sign.

But the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, Pete Buttigieg, pulled in $24.7m in the last quarter.

And another White House hopeful, Andrew Yang, raised $16.5m in the past three months.

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