A US Capitol Police officer died on Thursday night from injuries sustained “while physically engaging” with a pro-Trump mob that descended on the US Capitol the day before, the fifth fatality linked to the chaos that engulfed the nation’s capital on Wednesday, according to the authorities.

The officer, Brian D. Sicknick, died at about 9.30pm (local time) on Thursday, the Capitol Police said in a statement. He had been with the agency since 2008. The circumstances surrounding his death were not immediately clear, and the Capitol Police said only that he had “passed away due to injuries sustained while on duty”.

At some point in the bedlam — with the mob rampaging through the halls of Congress while lawmakers were forced to hide under their desks — Sicknick was struck with a fire extinguisher, according to two law enforcement officials.

“He returned to his division office and collapsed,” the Capitol Police said in the statement. “He was taken to a local hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries.”

The Washington police department’s homicide branch is one of several law enforcement agencies involved in a probe into his death.

Sicknick’s death brings the fatalities from Wednesday’s mayhem to five. One participant in the pro-Trump rampage, Ashli Babbitt, was fatally shot by an officer as she climbed through a broken window leading to the Speaker’s Lobby. Three other people died after experiencing what were believed to be medical emergencies.

New York Times News Service