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The eyewitness

A reporter who observed the results of a large-scale security raid in the Brazilian city has described how residents came back with disfigured remains of people who lost their lives.

The casualties "kept piling up: 25, 30, 35, 40, 45...", the eyewitness stated. They included those of police officers.

A particular victim had been decapitated - others were "completely mutilated", he said. Several bodies showed what appeared to be knife injuries.

Over 120 individuals were fatally injured in the Tuesday operation on a criminal gang - the bloodiest action Rio has experienced.

Bruno Itan reported that residents first notified him to the raid in the early hours by community members of the Alemão neighbourhood, who sent him messages informing him there was a shoot-out.

The photographer traveled to the Getúlio Vargas hospital, where the casualties were being brought.

Itan explained that law enforcement prevented journalists from going into the affected area, where the operation was under way.

"Security forces established a perimeter and announced: 'The press cannot proceed beyond this point'."

Nevertheless, the eyewitness, who was raised in the area, stated he succeeded to gain access into the restricted zone, where he stayed until the next morning.

He described that Tuesday night, area inhabitants started looking the hillside that borders the Penha neighborhood from the adjacent Alemão area for relatives who had been missing after the operation.

Residents from the Penha area arranged the discovered victims in a square - and Itan's photos show the emotions of the gathered crowd.

"The harsh reality of what occurred affected me profoundly: the sorrow of loved ones, women collapsing, women carrying children, crying, outraged parents," the photographer recalled.

The photographer

The official of the state declared that the large-scale security action with approximately 2,500 officers was intended to preventing a gang known as Comando Vermelho from growing their influence.

At first, local officials stated that sixty individuals along with four officers" were fatally injured in the raid.

Officials subsequently stated that early calculations suggests that 117 alleged criminals were fatally injured.

Rio's public defender's office, which provides legal assistance to low-income residents, has put the overall count of casualties at 132.

According to researchers, Red Command is the only criminal group that recently has been able to expand its territory throughout Rio state.

It is generally regarded among the biggest criminal organizations in Brazil, in company with a rival criminal group, and has a history spanning over five decades.

Per reporter Rafael Soares, who has been covering crime in Rio for years, the criminal organization "operates like a franchise" with local criminal leaders forming part of the gang and serving as "commercial associates".

The gang engages primarily in illegal drug trade, while also dealing in guns, gold, petroleum products, liquor smoking products.

Based on official reports, organization members possess significant weaponry and police said that during the raid, they came under attack via weaponized unmanned aircraft.

The official of the region, Cláudio Castro, characterized organization participants as criminal extremists and called the law enforcement personnel who died during the operation as "heroes".

Nevertheless, the total of fatalities in the security action has received condemnation from UN human rights officials expressing they felt "horrified".

At a news conference the next day, the state leader supported law enforcement.

"It wasn't our intention to kill anyone. We aimed to take suspects into custody without harm," he said.

He further explained that the situation had escalated as the individuals resisted aggressively: "It was a consequence of the retaliation they executed and the excessive violence by those criminals."

The official further reported that the victims shown by residents in Penha had been "tampered with".

In a post on online platforms, he claimed that some of them had been removed of military-style attire which he claimed they wore "to transfer accusation toward law enforcement".

Felipe Curi from the police department also said that military attire, body armor, and weapons" were stripped from the casualties and presented video seemingly depicting a person removing tactical gear {off a corpse