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Bruno Itan

A reporter who witnessed the consequences of a large-scale law enforcement action in the Brazilian city has recounted how local people brought back mutilated bodies of those who had died.

The victims "kept coming: the numbers kept rising", Bruno Itan stated. The total contained security forces.

One individual had been decapitated - additional victims were "totally disfigured", he explained. Several bodies showed evidence of blade trauma.

More than 120 people were fatally injured during Tuesday's raid on a criminal gang - the most lethal operation Rio has experienced.

The photographer reported that he initially learned about the operation in the early hours by residents living in Alemão, who contacted him informing him gunfire had erupted.

The photographer went to the healthcare center, where the casualties were coming in.

Itan explained that security forces stopped members of the press from accessing the operation zone, where the police action was under way.

"Security forces formed a line and said: 'Journalists doesn't get past here'."

But Itan, who grew up in the community, explained he was able to enter into the cordoned-off area, where he continued until dawn.

He reported that evening, area inhabitants started looking the hillside which divides the Penha neighborhood from the adjacent Alemão area for family members whose whereabouts were unknown since the police raid.

Local people living in Penha proceeded to place the recovered bodies in a public space - and Itan's photos reveal the reaction of the people there.

"The violence of it all affected me deeply: the pain of relatives, women collapsing, pregnant wives, crying, outraged parents," the photographer recalled.

The eyewitness

The official of the state declared that the large-scale security action deploying about 2,500 security personnel was intended to stopping a gang referred to as Red Command from increasing their control.

At first, the Rio state government claimed that sixty alleged criminals plus four law enforcement personnel" had been killed during the action.

Officials subsequently stated that their "preliminary" count indicates that 117 "suspects" have been killed.

The public legal service, which provides legal assistance to disadvantaged individuals, has estimated the total number of fatalities at 132.

According to researchers, the gang stands as the sole illegal faction that in the past few years has managed to increase its control throughout Rio state.

It is widely considered as a major illegal faction nationally, alongside another major gang, and has a history extending half a century.

According to correspondent an expert, with extensive experience documenting illegal operations in Rio for years, the gang "operates like a franchise" with neighborhood bosses joining the organization and acting as "business partners".

The organization concentrates largely on drug trafficking, but also smuggles firearms, gold, petroleum products, liquor and tobacco.

Based on official reports, gang members are well armed and officials reported that while the action was underway, they came under attack via weaponized unmanned aircraft.

The official of the state, Cláudio Castro, described Red Command members as criminal extremists and described the four police officers who died during the operation as "heroes".

Nevertheless, the total of casualties in the security action has faced scrutiny with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights expressing they felt "horrified".

In a media appearance the next day, Governor Castro defended the police force.

"There was no objective to result in deaths. We wanted to detain everyone safely," he said.

He added that the events intensified because the suspects fought back: "It resulted of the counterattack they carried out and the excessive violence by those criminals."

The official further reported that the bodies presented by community members in the neighborhood were "altered".

In a post through digital channels, he asserted that some of them had been removed of the camouflage clothing which he claimed they wore "in order to shift blame onto the police".

Felipe Curi from the police department additionally stated that military attire, body armor, and firearms" were taken away from the bodies and displayed evidence apparently demonstrating an individual stripping military attire {off a corpse