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Bruno Itan

A reporter who observed the consequences of an extensive security raid in Rio de Janeiro has recounted how local people brought back mutilated bodies of people who lost their lives.

The casualties "continued arriving: the numbers kept rising", the photographer described. The total contained law enforcement personnel.

One individual was found without a head - additional victims were "totally disfigured", he reported. Many also had what he described as knife injuries.

Over 120 individuals were fatally injured during Tuesday's raid on a criminal gang - the bloodiest action in the city.

The photographer stated that residents first notified him about the operation in the early hours by community members of the Alemão neighbourhood, who sent him messages telling him gunfire had erupted.

The reporter went to the Getúlio Vargas hospital, where the casualties were being brought.

Itan explained that law enforcement stopped members of the press from entering the operation zone, where the security measures was under way.

"Security forces created a barrier and announced: 'Journalists doesn't get past here'."

But Itan, who was raised in the community, reported he managed to enter into the cordoned-off area, where he stayed until the next morning.

He described during the night, local residents began to search the elevated terrain which divides the Penha neighborhood from the neighboring Alemão community for loved ones who were unaccounted for since the police raid.

Local people living in Penha proceeded to place the located casualties in a square - the documented evidence reveal the reaction of the gathered crowd.

"The brutality of what occurred affected me deeply: the sorrow of loved ones, parents losing consciousness, expectant spouses, crying, outraged parents," the reporter recounted.

Bruno Itan

The governor of the region stated that the large-scale security action deploying about 2,500 law enforcement members was designed to stopping a gang called Red Command from expanding its territory.

At first, the Rio state government maintained that sixty alleged criminals along with four officers" had been killed during the action.

Officials subsequently stated that initial estimates suggests that 117 "suspects" lost their lives.

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

Based on expert analysis, Red Command stands as the sole illegal faction which in recent years has succeeded to increase its control across the region.

It is generally regarded one of the two largest gangs in the country, together with a rival criminal group, featuring a timeline extending half a century.

Per reporter Rafael Soares, who has long reported on criminal activity in the city extensively, Red Command "operates like a franchise" with neighborhood bosses joining the organization and serving as "operational allies".

The gang focuses mainly on illegal drug trade, but also smuggles weapons, valuable minerals, energy resources, beverages cigarettes.

Based on official reports, criminal affiliates possess significant weaponry and police said that during the raid, they encountered resistance via weaponized unmanned aircraft.

The governor of the state, Cláudio Castro, described Red Command members as drug terrorists and described the four police officers fatally injured in the action as "heroes".

Nevertheless, the total of people killed during the raid has faced scrutiny from UN human rights officials expressing they felt "horrified".

During a press briefing the following day, the official defended the police force.

"We did not plan to kill anyone. We wanted to detain everyone safely," he said.

He added that the circumstances intensified due to the alleged criminals had retaliated: "It occurred of the resistance they carried out and the disproportionate use of force by the illegal group."

The governor also said that the victims displayed by locals in Penha had been "tampered with".

Through a message through digital channels, he claimed that certain victims had been stripped of the camouflage clothing he said they had been wearing "to transfer accusation to security forces".

Felipe Curi from the police department further reported that military attire, body armor, and firearms" were taken away from the victims and displayed evidence appearing to show a man stripping military attire {off a corpse