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The photographer

A photographer who documented the consequences of a massive law enforcement action in the Brazilian city has described how residents came back with mutilated bodies of people who lost their lives.

The casualties "kept coming: 25, 30, 35, 40, 45...", Bruno Itan reported. The total contained law enforcement personnel.

One individual had been decapitated - additional victims were "totally disfigured", he said. Numerous victims displayed what appeared to be knife injuries.

Over 120 individuals were fatally injured during the security action against a criminal group - the deadliest such raid Rio has experienced.

Bruno Itan reported that he was first alerted about the operation in the early hours by community members from the Alemão area, who reached out alerting him gunfire had erupted.

The photographer traveled to the Getúlio Vargas hospital, where the victims were arriving.

Itan explained that the police blocked media personnel from accessing the operation zone, where the operation were occurring.

"Law enforcement personnel created a barrier and said: 'Journalists are not allowed to pass'."

Nevertheless, the eyewitness, who grew up in the community, reported he was able to make his way into the restricted zone, where he continued until dawn.

He reported that Tuesday night, local residents started looking the hillside that borders the community of Penha and the neighboring Alemão community for relatives who were unaccounted for since the police raid.

Local people of the Penha neighbourhood arranged the discovered victims in a public space - and Itan's photos show the response of the people there.

"The brutality of it all affected me deeply: the grief of relatives, parents losing consciousness, expectant spouses, crying, angry family members," the photographer recalled.

The eyewitness

The governor of Rio state announced that the massive police operation with approximately 2,500 law enforcement members was intended to stopping a criminal group known as Red Command from expanding its territory.

At first, state authorities claimed that "60 suspects along with four officers" had been killed in the raid.

They have since said that their "preliminary" count suggests that 117 "suspects" lost their lives.

The public legal service, that offers legal help to disadvantaged individuals, has calculated the final tally of casualties as 132.

Per investigative findings, Red Command represents the unique criminal entity that in the past few years has managed to increase its control across the region.

It is generally regarded as a major illegal faction in Brazil, alongside First Capital Command, with a background dating back more than 50 years.

According to Brazilian journalist Rafael Soares, with extensive experience documenting illegal operations in Rio extensively, Red Command "operates like a franchise" with local criminal leaders affiliating with the group and serving as "operational allies".

The gang concentrates largely on drug trafficking, additionally trafficking firearms, gold, energy resources, beverages and tobacco.

Per law enforcement statements, gang members possess significant weaponry and officials reported that during the raid, they encountered resistance using drone-delivered explosives.

The official of the state, Cláudio Castro, labeled organization participants as "narcoterrorists" and referred to the four police officers killed in the raid as brave public servants.

However, the count of casualties in the security action has come in for criticism from international human rights authorities stating they were "appalled".

At a news conference the next day, the official defended the police force.

"We did not plan to result in deaths. We wanted to arrest them all alive," he stated.

He further explained that the circumstances had escalated because the suspects had retaliated: "It resulted of the resistance they implemented and the disproportionate use of force from the gang members."

The official additionally stated that the bodies presented by community members in the area were "altered".

Through a message through digital channels, he claimed that particular individuals had been stripped of the camouflage clothing which he claimed they wore "in order to shift blame toward law enforcement".

A police official from the police department additionally stated that military attire, vests, and arms" had been removed from the bodies and presented video appearing to show a person cutting camouflage clothing {off a corpse