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Bruno Itan

A reporter who witnessed the results of a large-scale Brazilian police operation in Rio de Janeiro has recounted how local people came back with mutilated bodies of the deceased individuals.

The victims "continued arriving: the numbers kept rising", Bruno Itan stated. The total contained law enforcement personnel.

One of the bodies had been decapitated - additional victims were "completely mutilated", he said. Numerous victims displayed evidence of blade trauma.

More than 120 people lost their lives during Tuesday's raid on a criminal gang - the most lethal operation Rio has experienced.

The photographer reported that residents first notified him concerning the action Tuesday morning by local people of the Alemão neighbourhood, who contacted him telling him gunfire had erupted.

The reporter traveled to a local medical facility, where the victims were coming in.

The photographer stated that law enforcement blocked media personnel from entering the Penha neighborhood, where the police action were taking place.

"Security forces formed a line and said: 'Journalists are not allowed to pass'."

Nevertheless, the eyewitness, who grew up in that neighborhood, reported he was able to enter into the cordoned-off area, where he stayed through the night.

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

Local people from the Penha area proceeded to place the located casualties in an open area - the documented evidence display the emotions of the people there.

"The harsh reality of what occurred affected me a lot: the sorrow of relatives, parents losing consciousness, women carrying children, weeping, furious relatives," the photographer recalled.

The photographer

The official of Rio state announced that the extensive law enforcement effort deploying about 2,500 officers was designed to halting a criminal group known as the criminal faction from expanding its territory.

At first, the Rio state government maintained that sixty alleged criminals along with four officers" had been killed in the raid.

Authorities later reported that their "preliminary" count indicates that 117 individuals lost their lives.

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

Per investigative findings, the criminal organization stands as the sole illegal faction that in the past few years has succeeded to increase its control in the state of Rio de Janeiro.

Experts commonly view among the biggest criminal organizations nationally, together with a rival criminal group, and has a history extending half a century.

Based on reporter an expert, with extensive experience documenting illegal operations in Rio extensively, the criminal organization "operates like a franchise" with neighborhood bosses joining the organization and serving as "business partners".

The gang engages primarily in drug trafficking, while also dealing in firearms, precious metals, fuel, alcohol smoking products.

Based on official reports, criminal affiliates possess significant weaponry and authorities stated that throughout the operation, they faced assaults using drone-delivered explosives.

The governor of the state, Cláudio Castro, described Red Command members as drug terrorists and described the security forces who died during the operation as brave public servants.

However, the count of people killed in the security action has come in for criticism with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights stating they were "appalled".

During a press briefing the following day, Governor Castro defended the police force.

"We did not plan to kill anyone. We intended to arrest them all alive," he stated.

He added that the events had escalated as the individuals resisted aggressively: "It occurred of the retaliation they executed and the excessive violence from the gang members."

The governor further reported that the victims presented by community members in Penha were "altered".

In a post on social media, he asserted that particular individuals had been taken of tactical gear he said they had been wearing "to redirect responsibility onto the police".

A law enforcement representative from the police department further reported that military attire, vests, and arms" had been removed from the casualties and presented video seemingly depicting an individual stripping military attire {off a corpse