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The eyewitness

An eyewitness who documented the consequences of a massive security raid in Rio de Janeiro has recounted how community members returned with disfigured remains of people who lost their lives.

The victims "kept coming: the count kept increasing", the photographer reported. The total contained those of police officers.

One of the bodies had been decapitated - additional victims were "totally disfigured", he reported. Many also had what he described as blade trauma.

Over 120 individuals were killed during the security action against a criminal group - the deadliest such raid in the city.

Bruno Itan stated that he initially learned to the raid early on Tuesday by local people of the Alemão neighbourhood, who contacted him telling him gunfire had erupted.

The reporter went to the healthcare center, where the bodies were being brought.

The photographer stated that the police blocked media personnel from accessing the operation zone, where the security measures was under way.

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

However, the photographer, who spent his childhood in that neighborhood, explained he succeeded to gain access past the security perimeter, where he remained until dawn.

He described that evening, local residents commenced searching the mountainous area that borders the community of Penha and the adjacent Alemão area for loved ones whose whereabouts were unknown since the police raid.

Community members from the Penha area arranged the recovered bodies in an open area - and Itan's photos display the response of the people there.

"The brutality of the situation impacted me profoundly: the sorrow of relatives, mothers fainting, women carrying children, crying, angry family members," the reporter recounted.

The photographer

The state leader of the state declared that the massive police operation deploying about 2,500 security personnel was aimed at halting a gang known as Comando Vermelho from increasing their control.

At first, the Rio state government maintained that "60 suspects and four police officers" had been killed during the action.

Authorities later reported that early calculations indicates that 117 alleged criminals lost their lives.

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

Per investigative findings, Red Command is the only criminal group that recently has managed to increase its control throughout Rio state.

Experts commonly view among the biggest criminal organizations in the country, together with First Capital Command, and has a history extending half a century.

Per Brazilian journalist Rafael Soares, with extensive experience documenting crime in Rio for years, the criminal organization "functions as a network" with area gang leaders joining the organization and becoming "operational allies".

The criminal group concentrates largely on narcotics distribution, but also smuggles firearms, valuable minerals, petroleum products, alcohol and tobacco.

Per law enforcement statements, criminal affiliates are well armed and police said that throughout the operation, they encountered resistance via weaponized unmanned aircraft.

The state leader of the state, the political leader, labeled organization participants as drug terrorists and described the four police officers who died during the operation as courageous individuals.

Nevertheless, the total of fatalities in the operation has come in for criticism from international human rights authorities saying it was "shocked".

At a news conference on Wednesday, the official supported law enforcement.

"We did not plan to kill anyone. We aimed to arrest them all alive," he declared.

He continued that the events had escalated due to the alleged criminals fought back: "It resulted of the retaliation they implemented and the excessive violence by those criminals."

The state leader further reported that the casualties presented by community members in the neighborhood were "altered".

In a post on online platforms, he said that certain victims had been stripped of the camouflage clothing that he stated they possessed "in order to shift blame toward law enforcement".

Felipe Curi of Rio's civil police force further reported that "camouflage clothing, vests, and firearms" were stripped from the casualties and showed footage appearing to show a person removing tactical gear {off a corpse