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The eyewitness

A reporter who documented the aftermath of an extensive law enforcement action in the Brazilian city has described how residents brought back mutilated bodies of people who lost their lives.

The casualties "continued arriving: the count kept increasing", Bruno Itan reported. They included those of police officers.

One individual was found without a head - others were "completely mutilated", he said. Numerous victims displayed evidence of knife injuries.

In excess of 120 victims were fatally injured during the security action on a criminal gang - the bloodiest action Rio has experienced.

Bruno Itan reported that he was first alerted concerning the action early on Tuesday by local people of the Alemão neighbourhood, who sent him messages alerting him an armed confrontation was occurring.

The eyewitness made his way to the Getúlio Vargas hospital, where the bodies were being brought.

The eyewitness reported that law enforcement prevented journalists from entering the operation zone, where the security measures was under way.

"Security forces established a perimeter and said: 'The press doesn't get past here'."

But Itan, who was raised in the area, stated he was able to gain access past the security perimeter, where he stayed until the next morning.

He reported during the night, area inhabitants started looking the hillside which divides the community of Penha and the nearby Alemão neighbourhood for relatives who were unaccounted for after the operation.

Residents of the Penha neighbourhood organized the discovered victims in a public space - the documented evidence display the reaction of the gathered crowd.

"The harsh reality of what occurred affected me deeply: the grief of relatives, women collapsing, women carrying children, sobbing, furious relatives," the photographer recalled.

Bruno Itan

The governor of the state announced that the massive police operation involving around 2,500 officers was intended to halting a gang called Comando Vermelho from increasing their control.

At first, state authorities maintained that "60 suspects plus four law enforcement personnel" were fatally injured in the operation.

Officials subsequently stated that their "preliminary" count shows that 117 "suspects" have been killed.

The public legal service, which provides legal assistance to low-income residents, has put the final tally of people killed at 132.

Per investigative findings, the criminal organization stands as the sole illegal faction that in the past few years has managed to make territorial gains in the state of Rio de Janeiro.

It is widely considered as a major illegal faction in Brazil, in company with a rival criminal group, and has a history extending half a century.

Based on reporter an expert, with extensive experience documenting crime in Rio extensively, Red Command "operates like a franchise" with neighborhood bosses forming part of the gang and acting as "operational allies".

The gang focuses mainly on illegal drug trade, additionally trafficking firearms, valuable minerals, fuel, liquor smoking products.

According to the authorities, criminal affiliates have substantial firearms and police said that during the raid, they faced assaults via weaponized unmanned aircraft.

The official of the region, Cláudio Castro, described organization participants as "narcoterrorists" and described the security forces who died during the operation as "heroes".

But the number of fatalities in the security action has received condemnation with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights stating they were "horrified".

During a press briefing the next day, the official justified security actions.

"There was no objective to cause fatalities. We aimed to take suspects into custody without harm," he declared.

He added that the events intensified because the suspects fought back: "It resulted of the counterattack they executed and the excessive violence from the gang members."

The governor additionally stated that the bodies shown by residents in the neighborhood had been "tampered with".

In a post on social media, he claimed that some of them had been taken of military-style attire he said they had been wearing "in order to shift blame onto the police".

A law enforcement representative of Rio's civil police force additionally stated that military attire, vests, and arms" had been removed from the casualties and displayed evidence appearing to show a man cutting camouflage clothing {off a corpse