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Bruno Itan

An eyewitness who observed the results of a massive law enforcement action in the Brazilian city has described how local people brought back badly injured victims of those who had died.

The victims "kept piling up: the count kept increasing", the eyewitness stated. They included security forces.

One of the bodies had been decapitated - others were "totally disfigured", he explained. Numerous victims displayed evidence of blade trauma.

In excess of 120 victims were fatally injured during Tuesday's raid targeting an illegal organization - the most lethal operation the municipality has seen.

Bruno Itan stated that he initially learned about the operation Tuesday morning by local people from the Alemão area, who reached out telling him there was a shoot-out.

The reporter made his way to a local medical facility, where the casualties were arriving.

Itan explained that the police blocked media personnel from accessing the operation zone, where the security measures was under way.

"Security forces created a barrier and announced: 'The press are not allowed to pass'."

Nevertheless, the eyewitness, who grew up in that neighborhood, reported he succeeded to make his way into the cordoned-off area, where he stayed until the next morning.

He explained that Tuesday night, local residents began to search the elevated terrain that borders the Penha neighborhood from the adjacent Alemão area for loved ones who had been missing since the police raid.

Local people living in Penha proceeded to place the discovered victims in a square - and Itan's photos show the reaction of the people there.

"The violence of it all affected me deeply: the grief of relatives, mothers fainting, pregnant wives, weeping, outraged parents," the photographer recalled.

The photographer

The governor of the region announced that the large-scale security action with approximately 2,500 law enforcement members was designed to halting an illegal organization called Comando Vermelho from growing their influence.

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

They have since said that early calculations suggests that 117 "suspects" have been killed.

Rio's public defender's office, that gives legal support to disadvantaged individuals, has estimated the final tally of casualties at 132.

Based on expert analysis, Red Command represents the unique criminal entity that recently has managed to expand its territory across the region.

Experts commonly view one of the two largest gangs in the country, alongside a rival criminal group, featuring a timeline spanning over five decades.

Based on correspondent a specialist, with extensive experience documenting criminal activity in the city extensively, Red Command "works as a system" with local criminal leaders affiliating with the group and acting as "business partners".

The organization concentrates largely on drug trafficking, but also smuggles weapons, valuable minerals, energy resources, alcohol cigarettes.

Based on official reports, gang members have substantial firearms and authorities stated that while the action was underway, they faced assaults using drone-delivered explosives.

The official of the region, the government representative, characterized Red Command members as criminal extremists and described the law enforcement personnel killed in the raid as courageous individuals.

However, the count of people killed during the raid has faced scrutiny from international human rights authorities stating they were "horrified".

In a media appearance on Wednesday, the official defended the police force.

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

He continued that the events had escalated due to the alleged criminals had retaliated: "It resulted of the retaliation they carried out and the overwhelming response by those criminals."

The governor further reported that the victims shown by residents in the area were "altered".

In a post on social media, he asserted that particular individuals had been removed of the camouflage clothing he said they had been wearing "to redirect responsibility toward law enforcement".

A police official representing security forces also said that military attire, protective equipment, and weapons" were stripped from the casualties and showed footage appearing to show an individual stripping military attire {off a corpse