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The photographer

An eyewitness who observed the results of a massive law enforcement action in the Brazilian city has described how community members returned with disfigured remains of people who lost their lives.

The bodies "kept coming: the count kept increasing", the eyewitness described. They included security forces.

One individual was discovered headless - while others appeared "severely damaged", he said. Several bodies showed evidence of stab wounds.

More than 120 people were fatally injured in the Tuesday operation targeting an illegal organization - the bloodiest action in the city.

The photographer reported that he initially learned concerning the action early on Tuesday by community members from the Alemão area, who sent him messages informing him gunfire had erupted.

The eyewitness made his way to the Getúlio Vargas hospital, where the bodies were being brought.

Itan explained that security forces stopped members of the press from accessing the operation zone, where the security measures were occurring.

"Law enforcement personnel formed a line and announced: 'Media representatives cannot proceed beyond this point'."

However, the photographer, who was raised in the area, reported he succeeded to make his way past the security perimeter, where he stayed until the next morning.

He reported that evening, local residents began to search the hillside that separates the Penha neighborhood from the adjacent Alemão area for loved ones who had been missing since the police raid.

Residents living in Penha organized the located casualties in a square - and Itan's photos display the reaction of the people there.

"The violence of it all affected me a lot: the grief of loved ones, women collapsing, women carrying children, sobbing, furious relatives," the reporter recounted.

The eyewitness

The governor of Rio state stated that the massive police operation with approximately 2,500 law enforcement members was designed to halting a gang called the criminal faction from growing their influence.

At first, local officials maintained that sixty individuals plus four law enforcement personnel" lost their lives in the operation.

Officials subsequently stated that initial estimates suggests that 117 individuals were fatally injured.

The public legal service, that offers legal help to the poor, has put the final tally of people killed to be 132.

Based on expert analysis, the gang stands as the sole illegal faction that in the past few years has managed to expand its territory throughout Rio state.

Experts commonly view among the biggest criminal organizations in the country, together with a rival criminal group, with a background spanning over five decades.

Based on Brazilian journalist an expert, with extensive experience documenting illegal operations in Rio over many years, the gang "works as a system" with neighborhood bosses forming part of the gang and becoming "operational allies".

The organization concentrates largely on drug trafficking, additionally trafficking firearms, gold, fuel, alcohol smoking products.

According to the authorities, organization members are well armed and authorities stated that throughout the operation, they encountered resistance via weaponized unmanned aircraft.

The state leader of the state, the government representative, described Red Command members as drug terrorists and called the four police officers who died during the operation as courageous individuals.

Nevertheless, the total of fatalities in the security action has faced scrutiny from UN human rights officials saying it was "shocked".

In a media appearance the next day, the official justified security actions.

"We did not plan to result in deaths. We aimed to take suspects into custody without harm," he said.

He continued that the circumstances worsened due to the alleged criminals had retaliated: "It resulted of the resistance they carried out and the excessive violence by those criminals."

The state leader additionally stated that the bodies shown by residents in Penha had been "tampered with".

In a post on social media, he asserted that some of them had been stripped of military-style attire which he claimed they wore "to redirect responsibility toward law enforcement".

Felipe Curi of Rio's civil police force further reported that "camouflage clothing, vests, and arms" were stripped from the casualties and presented video seemingly depicting a person cutting camouflage clothing {off a corpse