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Bruno Itan

A reporter who observed the results of a large-scale security raid in the Brazilian city has recounted how residents came back with badly injured victims of people who lost their lives.

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

One of the bodies had been decapitated - additional victims were "totally disfigured", he reported. Numerous victims displayed what he described as stab wounds.

More than 120 people were killed during Tuesday's raid against a criminal group - the deadliest such raid in the city.

Bruno Itan stated that he was first alerted concerning the action in the early hours by residents of the Alemão neighbourhood, who sent him messages informing him an armed confrontation was occurring.

The photographer traveled to a local medical facility, where the victims were coming in.

The eyewitness reported that security forces blocked media personnel from going into the operation zone, where the police action was under way.

"Law enforcement personnel formed a line and announced: 'Journalists doesn't get past here'."

Nevertheless, the eyewitness, who grew up in the area, stated he succeeded to enter into the restricted zone, where he remained through the night.

He reported during the night, community members commenced searching the hillside that borders the Penha neighborhood from the neighboring Alemão community for loved ones who had been missing after the operation.

Community members living in Penha organized the located casualties in an open area - the documented evidence display the emotions of the gathered crowd.

"The brutality of it all shook me profoundly: the grief of relatives, mothers fainting, expectant spouses, crying, furious relatives," the photographer recalled.

Bruno Itan

The state leader of the region stated that the massive police operation deploying about 2,500 security personnel was aimed at halting an illegal organization called Comando Vermelho from expanding its territory.

Originally, local officials maintained that "60 suspects and four police officers" lost their lives in the raid.

They have since said that initial estimates indicates that 117 "suspects" lost their lives.

The legal assistance organization, that gives legal support to the poor, has put the total number of casualties to be 132.

Per investigative findings, the gang represents the unique criminal entity that in the past few years has succeeded to make territorial gains across the region.

Experts commonly view one of the two largest gangs in Brazil, together with another major gang, featuring a timeline extending half a century.

According to correspondent a specialist, who has long reported on crime in Rio extensively, the criminal organization "works as a system" with neighborhood bosses joining the organization and acting as "business partners".

The organization concentrates largely on narcotics distribution, but also smuggles weapons, gold, energy resources, liquor and tobacco.

Per law enforcement statements, organization members are well armed and police said that throughout the operation, they encountered resistance from explosive-laden drones.

The governor of the state, Cláudio Castro, labeled gang affiliates as "narcoterrorists" and referred to the law enforcement personnel killed in the raid as "heroes".

But the number of fatalities in the operation has received condemnation from UN human rights officials expressing they felt "shocked".

At a news conference on Wednesday, the official supported law enforcement.

"We did not plan to kill anyone. We aimed to detain everyone safely," he stated.

He further explained that the events intensified because the suspects resisted aggressively: "It was a consequence of the counterattack they implemented and the excessive violence by the illegal group."

The official also said that the casualties displayed by locals in the area had been "manipulated".

Through a message on online platforms, he asserted that some of them had been stripped of tactical gear which he claimed they wore "in order to shift blame toward law enforcement".

Felipe Curi from the police department additionally stated that "camouflage clothing, body armor, and firearms" were taken away from the casualties and showed footage appearing to show a man cutting camouflage clothing {off a corpse