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The photographer

A photographer who observed the consequences of a massive law enforcement action in the Brazilian city has reported how community members came back with mutilated bodies of people who lost their lives.

The bodies "continued arriving: the numbers kept rising", the photographer described. The total contained law enforcement personnel.

A particular victim was found without a head - others were "completely mutilated", he reported. Numerous victims displayed evidence of knife injuries.

More than 120 people lost their lives in the Tuesday operation targeting an illegal organization - the deadliest such raid Rio has experienced.

Bruno Itan reported that he was first alerted about the operation in the early hours by residents from the Alemão area, who contacted him informing him there was a shoot-out.

The eyewitness made his way to the Getúlio Vargas hospital, where the bodies were being brought.

The photographer stated that the police stopped members of the press from entering the operation zone, where the operation were occurring.

"Police officers created a barrier and announced: 'Journalists are not allowed to pass'."

However, the photographer, who was raised in that neighborhood, stated he was able to gain access into the cordoned-off area, where he remained until the next morning.

He explained that Tuesday night, community members commenced searching the hillside that borders the community of Penha and the neighboring Alemão community for loved ones who had been missing since the police raid.

Community members living in Penha proceeded to place the discovered victims in a square - the photographer's images display the emotions of the gathered crowd.

"The brutality of it all affected me deeply: the pain of relatives, parents losing consciousness, women carrying children, weeping, furious relatives," the eyewitness remembered.

The eyewitness

The official of the region announced that the extensive law enforcement effort with approximately 2,500 law enforcement members was intended to stopping a criminal group known as the criminal faction from growing their influence.

At first, state authorities maintained that sixty alleged criminals plus four law enforcement personnel" lost their lives in the operation.

Authorities later reported that initial estimates suggests that 117 individuals lost their lives.

The legal assistance organization, that gives legal support to low-income residents, has put the final tally of casualties as 132.

Based on expert analysis, the gang is the only criminal group that recently has been able to increase its control in the state of Rio de Janeiro.

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

Per correspondent an expert, who has been covering illegal operations in Rio over many years, Red Command "operates like a franchise" with local criminal leaders forming part of the gang and becoming "commercial associates".

The criminal group concentrates largely on narcotics distribution, while also dealing in guns, valuable minerals, petroleum products, beverages and tobacco.

Per law enforcement statements, gang members have substantial firearms and police said that during the raid, they faced assaults from explosive-laden drones.

The state leader of Rio state, the government representative, described organization participants as criminal extremists and called the law enforcement personnel killed in the raid as courageous individuals.

Nevertheless, the total of casualties in the operation has received condemnation from international human rights authorities saying it was "shocked".

During a press briefing the following day, Governor Castro justified security actions.

"We did not plan to cause fatalities. We intended to detain everyone safely," he said.

He added that the events worsened as the individuals fought back: "It was a consequence of the retaliation they carried out and the excessive violence by those criminals."

The governor further reported that the victims displayed by locals in the neighborhood were "altered".

In a post through digital channels, he asserted that some of them had been taken of military-style attire which he claimed they wore "to redirect responsibility toward law enforcement".

A police official from the police department additionally stated that military attire, body armor, and firearms" were stripped from the casualties and displayed evidence apparently demonstrating a man cutting camouflage clothing {off a corpse