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Bruno Itan

An eyewitness who witnessed the consequences of a large-scale security raid in the Brazilian city has reported how community members brought back badly injured victims of people who lost their lives.

The bodies "continued arriving: the numbers kept rising", the eyewitness stated. The total contained security forces.

One individual was discovered headless - while others appeared "totally disfigured", he explained. Many also had what he described as blade trauma.

In excess of 120 victims lost their lives in the Tuesday operation against a criminal group - the deadliest such raid in the city.

The photographer reported that he was first alerted concerning the action Tuesday morning by residents living in Alemão, who reached out alerting him an armed confrontation was occurring.

The reporter traveled to the healthcare center, where the victims were coming in.

The photographer stated that law enforcement stopped members of the press from entering the Penha neighborhood, where the operation was under way.

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

However, the photographer, who was raised in that neighborhood, stated he managed to enter past the security perimeter, where he stayed until dawn.

He reported that Tuesday night, local residents started looking the mountainous area that separates the community of Penha and the neighboring Alemão community for family members whose whereabouts were unknown since the police raid.

Local people of the Penha neighbourhood proceeded to place the recovered bodies in an open area - and Itan's photos display the emotions of the people there.

"The violence of the situation affected me profoundly: the grief of relatives, parents losing consciousness, women carrying children, sobbing, angry family members," the eyewitness remembered.

The eyewitness

The state leader of Rio state declared that the large-scale security action with approximately 2,500 officers was aimed at preventing a criminal group known as Red Command from expanding its territory.

At first, the Rio state government claimed that sixty alleged criminals plus four law enforcement personnel" lost their lives in the raid.

They have since said that initial estimates shows that 117 "suspects" lost their lives.

Rio's public defender's office, that offers legal help to the poor, has estimated the overall count of fatalities as 132.

Per investigative findings, Red Command stands as the sole illegal faction that recently has managed to increase its control in the state of Rio de Janeiro.

Experts commonly view one of the two largest gangs in Brazil, in company with First Capital Command, featuring a timeline extending half a century.

Per correspondent an expert, with extensive experience documenting crime in Rio over many years, Red Command "operates like a franchise" with area gang leaders affiliating with the group and serving as "business partners".

The criminal group concentrates largely on drug trafficking, additionally trafficking guns, gold, fuel, beverages and tobacco.

Based on official reports, organization members are well armed and authorities stated that while the action was underway, they came under attack using drone-delivered explosives.

The state leader of the region, the government representative, labeled organization participants as drug terrorists and called the law enforcement personnel killed in the raid as "heroes".

Nevertheless, the total of fatalities in the operation has received condemnation from international human rights authorities expressing they felt "appalled".

At a news conference on Wednesday, the state leader justified security actions.

"It wasn't our intention to kill anyone. We aimed to detain everyone safely," he stated.

He continued that the events had escalated as the individuals resisted aggressively: "It was a consequence of the counterattack they executed and the disproportionate use of force by those criminals."

The governor further reported that the casualties displayed by locals in the neighborhood had been "manipulated".

Through a message on online platforms, he asserted that certain victims had been removed of military-style attire which he claimed they wore "to transfer accusation to security forces".

Felipe Curi of Rio's civil police force also said that military attire, protective equipment, and firearms" were stripped from the victims and displayed evidence appearing to show a man removing tactical gear {off a corpse