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The photographer

A reporter who witnessed the aftermath of an extensive law enforcement action in the Brazilian city has described how residents came back with badly injured victims of those who had died.

The victims "kept coming: 25, 30, 35, 40, 45...", Bruno Itan stated. Among them were law enforcement personnel.

One of the bodies was discovered headless - others were "severely damaged", he explained. Many also had evidence of knife injuries.

Over 120 individuals were killed during the security action against a criminal group - the deadliest such raid Rio has experienced.

The eyewitness stated that residents first notified him to the raid Tuesday morning by community members from the Alemão area, who sent him messages alerting him there was a shoot-out.

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

The photographer stated that the police prevented journalists from entering the Penha neighborhood, where the operation was under way.

"Law enforcement personnel created a barrier and announced: 'The press are not allowed to pass'."

Nevertheless, the eyewitness, who spent his childhood in the area, explained he managed to gain access past the security perimeter, where he stayed until the next morning.

He explained that Tuesday night, community members started looking the elevated terrain which divides Penha from the adjacent Alemão area for relatives whose whereabouts were unknown following the security action.

Community members from the Penha area proceeded to place the located casualties in a square - the documented evidence show the reaction of those present.

"The violence of what occurred shook me deeply: the grief of the families, parents losing consciousness, expectant spouses, weeping, outraged parents," the photographer recalled.

The eyewitness

The state leader of Rio state declared that the large-scale security action with approximately 2,500 law enforcement members was intended to halting a criminal group called Comando Vermelho from expanding its territory.

Initially, local officials maintained that sixty individuals and four police officers" were fatally injured during the action.

Authorities later reported that early calculations shows that 117 "suspects" were fatally injured.

Rio's public defender's office, that gives legal support to low-income residents, has calculated the overall count of casualties to be 132.

According to researchers, Red Command is the only criminal group that recently has succeeded to expand its territory across the region.

Experts commonly view one of the two largest gangs in Brazil, together with First Capital Command, featuring a timeline spanning over five decades.

Per reporter a specialist, who has long reported on criminal activity in the city extensively, the criminal organization "works as a system" with neighborhood bosses forming part of the gang and serving as "commercial associates".

The organization engages primarily in drug trafficking, while also dealing in guns, gold, petroleum products, alcohol smoking products.

According to the authorities, gang members have substantial firearms and authorities stated that throughout the operation, they encountered resistance via weaponized unmanned aircraft.

The state leader of Rio state, the government representative, characterized gang affiliates as "narcoterrorists" and referred to the security forces fatally injured in the action as courageous individuals.

But the number of people killed in the operation has received condemnation from UN human rights officials saying it was "appalled".

At a news conference on Wednesday, Governor Castro supported law enforcement.

"We did not plan to cause fatalities. We intended to detain everyone safely," he declared.

He further explained that the events worsened due to the alleged criminals resisted aggressively: "It was a consequence of the counterattack they carried out and the overwhelming response from the gang members."

The governor further reported that the bodies shown by residents in Penha were "altered".

Via a statement on online platforms, he claimed that some of them had been removed of the camouflage clothing he said they had been wearing "in order to shift blame to security forces".

A law enforcement representative from the police department also said that "camouflage clothing, protective equipment, and firearms" had been removed from the victims and displayed evidence apparently demonstrating an individual cutting camouflage clothing {off a corpse