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The photographer

A photographer who documented the consequences of an extensive security raid in Rio de Janeiro has recounted how residents came back with mutilated bodies of those who had died.

The bodies "kept piling up: the numbers kept rising", Bruno Itan reported. Among them were those of police officers.

One of the bodies was found without a head - while others appeared "severely damaged", he reported. Several bodies showed what he described as knife injuries.

More than 120 people lost their lives during the security action on a criminal gang - the deadliest such raid in the city.

The eyewitness reported that he initially learned to the raid in the early hours by local people from the Alemão area, who contacted him alerting him there was a shoot-out.

The eyewitness went to the Getúlio Vargas hospital, where the casualties were being brought.

The eyewitness reported that the police blocked media personnel from accessing the Penha neighborhood, where the police action were taking place.

"Law enforcement personnel formed a line and said: 'The press doesn't get past here'."

Nevertheless, the eyewitness, who spent his childhood in that neighborhood, explained he managed to gain access past the security perimeter, where he remained through the night.

He described that Tuesday night, area inhabitants started looking the hillside that separates Penha from the nearby Alemão neighbourhood for family members whose whereabouts were unknown following the security action.

Residents from the Penha area proceeded to place the located casualties in an open area - the documented evidence show the reaction of the gathered crowd.

"The harsh reality of the situation shook me deeply: the grief of the families, women collapsing, expectant spouses, weeping, furious relatives," the reporter recounted.

Bruno Itan

The governor of the region announced that the extensive law enforcement effort deploying about 2,500 officers was aimed at preventing an illegal organization called Red Command from expanding its territory.

Initially, local officials claimed that sixty alleged criminals and four police officers" were fatally injured in the operation.

Officials subsequently stated that their "preliminary" count shows that 117 "suspects" lost their lives.

The legal assistance organization, that offers legal help to low-income residents, has estimated the overall count of casualties as 132.

Per investigative findings, the criminal organization is the only criminal group which in recent years has been able to make territorial gains across the region.

It is widely considered one of the two largest gangs in Brazil, together with another major gang, featuring a timeline extending half a century.

Based on reporter Rafael Soares, with extensive experience documenting crime in Rio extensively, Red Command "operates like a franchise" with area gang leaders affiliating with the group and serving as "operational allies".

The organization focuses mainly on illegal drug trade, while also dealing in guns, valuable minerals, energy resources, alcohol smoking products.

According to the authorities, gang members are well armed and police said that during the raid, they encountered resistance via weaponized unmanned aircraft.

The official of Rio state, the government representative, characterized gang affiliates as criminal extremists and called the law enforcement personnel who died during the operation as "heroes".

But the number of fatalities in the security action has come in for criticism from international human rights authorities saying it was "shocked".

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

"We did not plan to cause fatalities. We wanted to take suspects into custody without harm," he stated.

He further explained that the circumstances intensified because the suspects had retaliated: "It resulted of the retaliation they carried out and the overwhelming response by those criminals."

The official also said that the victims displayed by locals in Penha had been "manipulated".

Via a statement on social media, he said that some of them had been stripped of the camouflage clothing that he stated they possessed "in order to shift blame onto the police".

A law enforcement representative of Rio's civil police force additionally stated that "camouflage clothing, protective equipment, and weapons" had been removed from the victims and showed footage appearing to show an individual stripping military attire {off a corpse