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The eyewitness

An eyewitness who documented the results of a large-scale law enforcement action in Rio de Janeiro has recounted how residents brought back mutilated bodies of those who had died.

The bodies "continued arriving: the numbers kept rising", Bruno Itan described. Among them were law enforcement personnel.

A particular victim had been decapitated - others were "severely damaged", he reported. Several bodies showed evidence of blade trauma.

In excess of 120 victims were killed during Tuesday's raid against a criminal group - the deadliest such raid Rio has experienced.

The photographer reported that he was first alerted about the operation early on Tuesday by residents of the Alemão neighbourhood, who sent him messages informing him an armed confrontation was occurring.

The photographer traveled to the Getúlio Vargas hospital, where the casualties were being brought.

Itan explained that security forces prevented journalists from going into the Penha neighborhood, where the security measures was under way.

"Law enforcement personnel established a perimeter and declared: 'Journalists doesn't get past here'."

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

He described that evening, local residents began to search the hillside which divides the Penha neighborhood from the nearby Alemão neighbourhood for relatives who were unaccounted for since the police raid.

Local people from the Penha area arranged the discovered victims in an open area - the documented evidence show the response of the people there.

"The brutality of it all shook me profoundly: the pain of loved ones, parents losing consciousness, women carrying children, crying, angry family members," the photographer recalled.

The photographer

The governor of Rio state declared that the extensive law enforcement effort with approximately 2,500 officers was designed to halting an illegal organization referred to as Red Command from expanding its territory.

At first, local officials stated that "60 suspects plus four law enforcement personnel" had been killed in the raid.

Officials subsequently stated that initial estimates suggests that 117 individuals were fatally injured.

The public legal service, that offers legal help to low-income residents, has estimated the final tally of people killed as 132.

Based on expert analysis, the criminal organization is the only criminal group that in the past few years has been able to increase its control across the region.

It is generally regarded one of the two largest gangs in Brazil, in company with a rival criminal group, with a background dating back more than 50 years.

Based on reporter Rafael Soares, who has been covering crime in Rio for years, the gang "works as a system" with neighborhood bosses affiliating with the group and serving as "operational allies".

The organization engages primarily in drug trafficking, but also smuggles firearms, precious metals, fuel, beverages smoking products.

According to the authorities, gang members possess significant weaponry and officials reported that during the raid, they encountered resistance via weaponized unmanned aircraft.

The governor of Rio state, Cláudio Castro, characterized organization participants as criminal extremists and called the security forces killed in the raid as courageous individuals.

Nevertheless, the total of casualties in the operation has faced scrutiny from international human rights authorities expressing they felt "horrified".

In a media appearance on Wednesday, the official supported law enforcement.

"It wasn't our intention to kill anyone. We wanted to take suspects into custody without harm," he said.

He added that the events intensified due to the alleged criminals resisted aggressively: "It resulted of the resistance they implemented and the disproportionate use of force by those criminals."

The state leader also said that the bodies presented by community members in Penha were "altered".

Via a statement on online platforms, he claimed that particular individuals had been stripped of the camouflage clothing that he stated they possessed "to redirect responsibility onto the police".

Felipe Curi from the police department further reported that tactical gear, body armor, and arms" were taken away from the victims and presented video appearing to show a man cutting camouflage clothing {off a corpse