Supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump stormed yesterday evening the U.S. Capitol building where Congress meets in an attempt to overturn the results of the Nov. 3 election won by Joe Biden.
Some protesters managed to get inside of the Congress and all lawmakers were evacuated. Rioters vandalized House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s suite of offices, flipping tables and rummaging through desks.
Protesters were photographed wandering around lawmakers’ private offices and rummaging through their desks after members of Congress were dramatically evacuated and taken to a secret location.
The White House announced it was deploying the National Guard to DC to help disperse the crowd as lawmakers on both sides of the aisle begged the president to do something.
Authorities of Washington DC confirmed four deaths during violent protests near the U.S. Congress building, Metropolitan Police Department Chief Robert Contee said.
He confirmed that a woman died in a hospital after she was shot inside the Congress building and added that three more people also died during the protests suffering "separate medical emergencies."
Contee also said that at least 14 law enforcers sustained injuries during the protests and two of them were hospitalized.
According to him, law enforcement officers night detained more than 50 people after the curfew imposed in the U.S. capital due to riots. According to Contee, 47 of the 52 arrests to date were related to violations of Mayor Muriel Bowser’s 6 pm curfew, including 26 of those people arrested on US Capitol grounds.
In addition, two pipe bombs were recovered from the headquarters of the Republican and Democratic national committees, Contee said.
The U.S. Congress later resumed a meeting to approve the results of the November presidential election after both houses rejected the first protest in a separate vote.
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, presiding over the meeting, announced that the Senate and House of Representatives had rejected the protest against the approval of the voting results in the presidential elections in Arizona.
At the meeting, only written objections are accepted. They must be signed by at least one member of the House of Representatives and one of his or her Senate counterparts. Each such objection shall be submitted after the suspension of the joint meeting for consideration and voting in the upper and lower houses of Congress. In these cases they vote separately.
Republicans have previously said they intend to file several protests during the joint meeting.
Following violent protests, U.S. President Donald Trump urged his supporters to 'go home', reiterating his unproven allegations that the recently-concluded presidential election was fraudulent' and 'stolen'.
In a one-minute video on Twitter, Trump said: "We had an election that was stolen from us. That was a landslide election and everyone knows it, especially the other side. But you have to go home now. We have to have peace. We've to have law and order. We don't want anybody hurt." "This was a fraudulent election, but we can't play in the hands of these people. We have to have peace. So go home. We love you," he added.
World leaders expressed their shock due to the event. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was “saddened” by the events at the U.S. Capitol, his spokesman said.
Charles Michel, chairman of EU leaders, on Twitter expressed his shock at the scenes in Washington. "The US Congress is a temple of democracy...We trust the U.S. to ensure a peaceful transfer of power to Joe Biden."
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said: “I believe in the strength of U.S. institutions and democracy. Peaceful transition of power is at the core. Joe Biden won the election. I look forward to working with him as the next President of the U.S."
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg called the violent protests in Washington "shocking scenes" and said the outcome of the democratic U.S. election must be respected.
