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Bruno Itan

A photographer who documented the consequences of an extensive law enforcement action in the metropolitan area has reported how community members brought back disfigured remains of those who had died.

The bodies "kept coming: the numbers kept rising", the photographer stated. The total contained those of police officers.

One of the bodies was discovered headless - additional victims were "totally disfigured", he explained. Many also had what appeared to be blade trauma.

More than 120 people were fatally injured during the security action targeting an illegal organization - the most lethal operation in the city.

The photographer stated that he was first alerted concerning the action early on Tuesday by residents from the Alemão area, who contacted him alerting him gunfire had erupted.

The eyewitness traveled to a local medical facility, where the casualties were coming in.

The eyewitness reported that security forces blocked media personnel from going into the operation zone, where the security measures were taking place.

"Law enforcement personnel formed a line and announced: 'Media representatives cannot proceed beyond this point'."

However, the photographer, who spent his childhood in that neighborhood, reported he succeeded to enter into the cordoned-off area, where he stayed until dawn.

He explained that Tuesday night, area inhabitants commenced searching the mountainous area which divides Penha from the adjacent Alemão area for family members who had been missing after the operation.

Residents from the Penha area arranged the discovered victims in a square - the photographer's images reveal the reaction of the gathered crowd.

"The harsh reality of it all impacted me profoundly: the sorrow of loved ones, women collapsing, women carrying children, weeping, angry family members," the reporter recounted.

Bruno Itan

The governor of the state declared that the large-scale security action involving around 2,500 law enforcement members was designed to halting an illegal organization called Comando Vermelho from increasing their control.

At first, local officials stated that sixty individuals along with four officers" were fatally injured in the operation.

Authorities later reported that their "preliminary" count suggests that 117 alleged criminals have been killed.

Rio's public defender's office, that offers legal help to low-income residents, has estimated the final tally of people killed at 132.

According to researchers, the gang represents the unique criminal entity which in recent years has been able to expand its territory across the region.

It is widely considered as a major illegal faction in the country, together with a rival criminal group, featuring a timeline extending half a century.

According to Brazilian journalist Rafael Soares, who has been covering illegal operations in Rio over many years, the criminal organization "works as a system" with neighborhood bosses joining the organization and becoming "operational allies".

The gang engages primarily in drug trafficking, additionally trafficking firearms, gold, petroleum products, alcohol cigarettes.

Based on official reports, criminal affiliates possess significant weaponry and police said that while the action was underway, they encountered resistance using drone-delivered explosives.

The governor of the region, the political leader, labeled gang affiliates as criminal extremists and called the security forces killed in the raid as courageous individuals.

Nevertheless, the total of people killed in the security action has come in for criticism from UN human rights officials expressing they felt "shocked".

In a media appearance on Wednesday, Governor Castro justified security actions.

"It wasn't our intention to result in deaths. We aimed to detain everyone safely," he declared.

He added that the situation worsened as the individuals resisted aggressively: "It was a consequence of the retaliation they implemented and the overwhelming response by the illegal group."

The governor additionally stated that the victims displayed by locals in the area had been "manipulated".

In a post on online platforms, he claimed that particular individuals had been stripped of military-style attire he said they had been wearing "to redirect responsibility onto the police".

Felipe Curi of Rio's civil police force additionally stated that military attire, protective equipment, and weapons" were stripped from the bodies and displayed evidence appearing to show a person removing tactical gear {off a corpse