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Bruno Itan

An eyewitness who documented the results of a massive law enforcement action in the Brazilian city has described how community members came back with badly injured victims of people who lost their lives.

The casualties "kept coming: the count kept increasing", the photographer stated. Among them were law enforcement personnel.

One individual was found without a head - others were "severely damaged", he said. Many also had what he described as knife injuries.

Over 120 individuals were killed during Tuesday's raid targeting an illegal organization - the deadliest such raid Rio has experienced.

The photographer explained that he initially learned to the raid in the early hours by community members from the Alemão area, who reached out alerting him an armed confrontation was occurring.

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

The photographer stated that the police stopped members of the press from accessing the Penha neighborhood, where the police action were taking place.

"Security forces established a perimeter and declared: 'Journalists doesn't get past here'."

Nevertheless, the eyewitness, who spent his childhood in the community, explained he managed to enter past the security perimeter, where he remained through the night.

He described during the night, area inhabitants started looking the mountainous area that borders the Penha neighborhood from the adjacent Alemão area for loved ones whose whereabouts were unknown since the police raid.

Residents living in Penha arranged the recovered bodies in a square - the documented evidence display the reaction of the people there.

"The violence of it all shook me a lot: the pain of relatives, women collapsing, pregnant wives, crying, furious relatives," the eyewitness remembered.

Bruno Itan

The official of the state stated that the massive police operation involving around 2,500 security personnel was aimed at stopping a criminal group called the criminal faction from increasing their control.

At first, state authorities maintained that "60 suspects and four police officers" were fatally injured during the action.

They have since said that their "preliminary" count indicates that 117 alleged criminals have been killed.

Rio's public defender's office, that gives legal support to disadvantaged individuals, has calculated the total number of fatalities as 132.

Per investigative findings, the criminal organization represents the unique criminal entity that recently has been able to increase its control throughout Rio state.

It is generally regarded as a major illegal faction in the country, alongside a rival criminal group, and has a history extending half a century.

According to reporter Rafael Soares, who has been covering criminal activity in the city over many years, Red Command "works as a system" with local criminal leaders forming part of the gang and becoming "commercial associates".

The gang focuses mainly on drug trafficking, while also dealing in firearms, precious metals, fuel, alcohol cigarettes.

Based on official reports, organization members are well armed and police said that throughout the operation, they encountered resistance using drone-delivered explosives.

The official of the state, Cláudio Castro, characterized gang affiliates as drug terrorists and called the security forces killed in the raid as courageous individuals.

Nevertheless, the total of casualties in the operation has come in for criticism from international human rights authorities saying it was "horrified".

During a press briefing the next day, the state leader supported law enforcement.

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

He further explained that the situation had escalated because the suspects fought back: "It was a consequence of the counterattack they implemented and the overwhelming response from the gang members."

The official further reported that the bodies shown by residents in the neighborhood had been "tampered with".

Through a message on social media, he said that some of them had been stripped of tactical gear that he stated they possessed "to transfer accusation onto the police".

A law enforcement representative representing security forces also said that tactical gear, body armor, and weapons" had been removed from the bodies and presented video apparently demonstrating a person removing tactical gear {off a corpse