Washington DC: Four people were reportedly killed and 52 were arrested after supporters of outgoing US President Donald Trump swarmed the US Capitol.
The unprecedented security breach came even as US lawmakers were counting Electoral College votes to certify President-elect Joe Biden and Vice-President elect Kamala Harris’ election victory.
Protesters supporting Trump swarmed the US Capitol, putting it on lockdown, as Vice President Mike Pence rebuffed the President’s demand to overturn his loss to Democrat Joe Biden and the Senate’s Republican leader denounced a bid in Congress to undo the election outcome, NDTV reported.
Trump supporters overturned barricades and clashed with police on the US Capitol grounds and streamed inside the building.
As the violence went on for hours, police evacuated the US lawmakers to safety. After over three hours of the invasion, police managed to clear the US Capitol building for the Congress to reconvene and go ahead with the certification process.
In a late-night news conference on Wednesday, Metropolitan Police Department Chief Robert J Contee said that 47 of the 52 arrests were related to violations of a curfew, with 26 of those involving people arrested on US Capitol grounds.
Contee further informed that one woman protester was shot dead and three others succumbed to injuries sustained during the police action to bring the rioting under control.
Biden won the election by 306-232 in the state-by-state Electoral College and by more than 7 million ballots in the national popular vote, but Trump continues to falsely claim there was widespread fraud and that he was the victor.
However, Trump has contested the result and claimed that the election was “stolen” by the Democrats. The immediate trigger for the rioting was a video posted by Trump on social media, reiterating his allegation of election fraud and urging his supporters to march on the seat of government.
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