A man seen holding a Confederate battle flag, a person identified as striking a police officer with a flagpole and a retired firefighter identified as having thrown a fire extinguisher at officers were among those arrested on Thursday for their role in the riot at the US Capitol last week.

A federal prosecutor in Texas also said on Thursday that a retired Air Force officer who stormed the Senate chamber dressed in military-style clothing and holding zip ties had intended to “take hostages”.

The retired officer, Larry Rendell Brock, was arrested in Texas on Sunday on one count of unlawfully entering a restricted building and another of violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, the justice department said at the time.

“He means to take hostages,” the Texas prosecutor, assistant US attorney Jay Weimer, said on Thursday, The AP reported. “He means to kidnap, restrain, perhaps try, perhaps execute members of the US government.”

The top federal prosecutor in Washington said this week that he expected the number of people charged with crimes tied to the Capitol riot to rise into the hundreds.