Four dead after hundreds of Trump supporters attacked US Capitol Hill

Four people died as supporters of President Donald Trump violently occupied the US Capitol.

Washington DC Police Chief Robert Contee said the dead on Wednesday included a woman who was shot by the US Capitol Police, as well as three others who died in medical emergencies".

Police said both law enforcement and Trump supporters deployed chemical irritants during the hours-long occupation of the Capitol building before it was cleared Wednesday evening by law enforcement.

The woman was shot earlier Wednesday as the mob tried to break through a barricaded door in the Capitol where police were armed on the other side. She was hospitalised with a gunshot wound and later died.

DC police officials also say two pipe bombs were recovered, 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.