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The photographer

An eyewitness who documented the consequences of a large-scale Brazilian police operation in the Brazilian city has reported how local people came back with badly injured victims of people who lost their lives.

The bodies "continued arriving: the count kept increasing", Bruno Itan described. The total contained security forces.

One of the bodies was found without a head - additional victims were "totally disfigured", he explained. Many also had what he described as stab wounds.

More than 120 people were fatally injured during Tuesday's raid targeting an illegal organization - the deadliest such raid the municipality has seen.

The eyewitness explained that he initially learned to the raid early on Tuesday by local people from the Alemão area, who sent him messages informing him an armed confrontation was occurring.

The eyewitness made his way to the healthcare center, where the casualties were coming in.

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

"Law enforcement personnel established a perimeter and declared: 'Journalists cannot proceed beyond this point'."

But Itan, who spent his childhood in the area, explained he was able to enter into the cordoned-off area, where he remained until dawn.

He described that Tuesday night, community members commenced searching the elevated terrain that borders the community of Penha and the adjacent Alemão area for family members who had been missing after the operation.

Residents from the Penha area organized the recovered bodies in a square - and Itan's photos show the response of those present.

"The harsh reality of what occurred affected me deeply: the sorrow of the families, mothers fainting, expectant spouses, sobbing, outraged parents," the photographer recalled.

The eyewitness

The governor of the region declared that the large-scale security action deploying about 2,500 security personnel was designed to stopping an illegal organization referred to as Red Command from increasing their control.

Initially, the Rio state government maintained that "60 suspects along with four officers" lost their lives in the raid.

Officials subsequently stated that early calculations indicates that 117 alleged criminals have been killed.

Rio's public defender's office, which provides legal assistance to the poor, has estimated the overall count of people killed at 132.

According to researchers, the gang stands as the sole illegal faction which in recent years has been able to increase its control across the region.

Experts commonly view among the biggest criminal organizations in the country, alongside First Capital Command, with a background extending half a century.

Per Brazilian journalist Rafael Soares, who has long reported on illegal operations in Rio over many years, the gang "works as a system" with neighborhood bosses forming part of the gang and acting as "operational allies".

The gang concentrates largely on narcotics distribution, but also smuggles firearms, gold, energy resources, liquor and tobacco.

Based on official reports, criminal affiliates possess significant weaponry and officials reported that throughout the operation, they encountered resistance via weaponized unmanned aircraft.

The official of the state, the political leader, labeled Red Command members as "narcoterrorists" and referred to the security forces who died during the operation as brave public servants.

Nevertheless, the total of people killed during the raid has received condemnation from international human rights authorities saying it was "horrified".

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

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

He further explained that the events intensified as the individuals resisted aggressively: "It resulted of the resistance they implemented and the overwhelming response by those criminals."

The state leader additionally stated that the victims displayed by locals in the area had been "tampered with".

Via a statement through digital channels, he claimed that some of them had been stripped of tactical gear which he claimed they wore "in order to shift blame to security forces".

A police official representing security forces also said that military attire, protective equipment, and firearms" were stripped from the bodies and showed footage apparently demonstrating an individual removing tactical gear {off a corpse