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The photographer

A reporter who observed the consequences of an extensive Brazilian police operation in the metropolitan area has recounted how residents brought back mutilated bodies of the deceased individuals.

The casualties "kept coming: the numbers kept rising", the photographer reported. The total contained those of police officers.

One individual had been decapitated - additional victims were "completely mutilated", he said. Many also had what he described as knife injuries.

In excess of 120 victims were fatally injured in the Tuesday operation on a criminal gang - the deadliest such raid the municipality has seen.

Bruno Itan explained that he was first alerted concerning the action Tuesday morning by local people from the Alemão area, who reached out alerting him an armed confrontation was occurring.

The reporter went to the Getúlio Vargas hospital, where the victims were coming in.

The eyewitness reported that the police stopped members of the press from accessing the Penha neighborhood, where the operation were occurring.

"Police officers created a barrier and declared: 'Journalists are not allowed to pass'."

But Itan, who grew up in the community, explained he managed to enter past the security perimeter, where he continued until the next morning.

He described during the night, area inhabitants began to search the elevated terrain that borders Penha from the nearby Alemão neighbourhood for family members who had been missing after the operation.

Community members of the Penha neighbourhood proceeded to place the recovered bodies in a public space - the documented evidence reveal the emotions of the gathered crowd.

"The harsh reality of what occurred impacted me profoundly: the pain of the families, mothers fainting, expectant spouses, crying, angry family members," the photographer recalled.

The eyewitness

The official of the region stated that the large-scale security action deploying about 2,500 law enforcement members was intended to halting an illegal organization referred to as Comando Vermelho from growing their influence.

Originally, local officials maintained that sixty individuals plus four law enforcement personnel" were fatally injured during the action.

Officials subsequently stated that their "preliminary" count shows that 117 individuals lost their lives.

The public legal service, that offers legal help to disadvantaged individuals, has estimated the total number of people killed at 132.

Per investigative findings, Red Command is the only criminal group which in recent years has managed to expand its territory throughout Rio state.

It is widely considered among the biggest criminal organizations nationally, alongside a rival criminal group, featuring a timeline dating back more than 50 years.

According to correspondent Rafael Soares, who has been covering illegal operations in Rio for years, the gang "functions as a network" with local criminal leaders affiliating with the group and acting as "business partners".

The organization concentrates largely on drug trafficking, additionally trafficking firearms, precious metals, energy resources, alcohol smoking products.

Based on official reports, gang members are well armed and police said that during the raid, they faced assaults via weaponized unmanned aircraft.

The governor of the state, the political leader, labeled gang affiliates as drug terrorists and referred to the law enforcement personnel killed in the raid as brave public servants.

Nevertheless, the total of people killed during the raid has faced scrutiny with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights saying it was "appalled".

At a news conference the following day, the state leader justified security actions.

"It wasn't our intention to cause fatalities. We wanted to take suspects into custody without harm," he declared.

He further explained that the circumstances had escalated due to the alleged criminals resisted aggressively: "It was a consequence of the resistance they implemented and the excessive violence by those criminals."

The governor also said that the bodies displayed by locals in Penha were "altered".

Via a statement on social media, he asserted that certain victims had been stripped of the camouflage clothing which he claimed they wore "to transfer accusation onto the police".

A law enforcement representative of Rio's civil police force further reported that military attire, body armor, and firearms" were taken away from the victims and displayed evidence appearing to show a man stripping military attire {off a corpse