Four people died, including one woman who was shot by a police officer, amid protests and rioting on Capitol Hill by supporters of Donald Trump who swarmed inside the building to stop a session of Congress to accredit Joe Biden's election win, triggering unprecedented chaos and violence.
Metropolitan Police Department Chief Robert J Contee in a late-night news conference said 52 arrests have been made over the violence that saw pro-Trump rioters breaking windows, climbing on rafters, ripping down U.S. flags and roaming the Senate chamber.
Police said both law enforcement and Trump followers disposed of chemical irritants during the attack on the Capitol building that went long.
On Wednesday, the woman was shot as the mob tried to break in the barricaded door in the Capitol where police were armed on the other side. The woman was hospitalised with a gunshot wound and was declared dead later.
Lockdown was imposed in both the House, Senate and the entire Capitol while Vice President Mike Pence and other legislators were rescued to safer locations.
Congressmen were asked to take gas masks as police deployed tear gas inside the Rotunda, the ornate area under the dome that connects the House and the Senate, according to the Washington Post.
DC police officials say two pipe bombs were seized, one outside the Democratic National Committee and one outside the Republican National Committee.
Police found a cooler from a vehicle that had a long gun and Molotov cocktail on Capitol grounds.
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The turmoil and violence at the Capitol Hill Building appeared a day after Biden enjoyed a new achievement, with his Democrats predicted to win two Senate seats in runoffs in Georgia -- giving the party full control of Congress and dramatically increasing Biden's ability to pass legislation, starting with new Coronavirus relief.
Historians have said that this was the first time that the Capitol had been seized over since 1814 when the British burned it during the War of 1812.