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Bruno Itan

A photographer who witnessed the results of a large-scale security raid in the metropolitan area has reported how residents came back with badly injured victims of the deceased individuals.

The bodies "kept coming: 25, 30, 35, 40, 45...", Bruno Itan stated. They included law enforcement personnel.

One individual had been decapitated - while others appeared "severely damaged", he said. Several bodies showed what he described as knife injuries.

In excess of 120 victims were fatally injured during the security action against a criminal group - the most lethal operation Rio has experienced.

The photographer reported that he was first alerted to the raid Tuesday morning by local people of the Alemão neighbourhood, who sent him messages informing him an armed confrontation was occurring.

The photographer traveled to the Getúlio Vargas hospital, where the casualties were arriving.

The eyewitness reported that security forces blocked media personnel from entering the affected area, where the operation was under way.

"Security forces created a barrier and said: 'Media representatives doesn't get past here'."

However, the photographer, who was raised in the community, explained he managed to gain access into the cordoned-off area, where he remained until the next morning.

He described during the night, area inhabitants commenced searching the mountainous area that separates the Penha neighborhood from the neighboring Alemão community for family members who were unaccounted for after the operation.

Community members of the Penha neighbourhood organized the located casualties in a public space - the documented evidence display the emotions of the gathered crowd.

"The violence of the situation impacted me a lot: the sorrow of loved ones, mothers fainting, expectant spouses, weeping, furious relatives," the reporter recounted.

The eyewitness

The official of Rio state declared that the extensive law enforcement effort involving around 2,500 officers was designed to preventing a criminal group known as Comando Vermelho from increasing their control.

Originally, state authorities stated that sixty alleged criminals along with four officers" lost their lives during the action.

They have since said that initial estimates suggests that 117 individuals were fatally injured.

Rio's public defender's office, that gives legal support to low-income residents, has put the total number of fatalities at 132.

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

It is widely considered one of the two largest gangs nationally, together with another major gang, featuring a timeline extending half a century.

According to reporter Rafael Soares, with extensive experience documenting illegal operations in Rio for years, Red Command "works as a system" with area gang leaders joining the organization and serving as "operational allies".

The organization engages primarily in illegal drug trade, while also dealing in guns, gold, petroleum products, beverages and tobacco.

Per law enforcement statements, gang members have substantial firearms and police said that during the raid, they encountered resistance via weaponized unmanned aircraft.

The official of the state, the political leader, labeled organization participants as drug terrorists and called the law enforcement personnel killed in the raid as "heroes".

Nevertheless, the total of casualties in the operation has faced scrutiny with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights saying it was "appalled".

In a media appearance on Wednesday, Governor Castro supported law enforcement.

"We did not plan to result in deaths. We aimed to detain everyone safely," he said.

He added that the situation worsened due to the alleged criminals resisted aggressively: "It was a consequence of the resistance they carried out and the excessive violence by the illegal group."

The official also said that the bodies shown by residents in the area were "altered".

Via a statement on online platforms, he asserted that particular individuals had been stripped of the camouflage clothing he said they had been wearing "in order to shift blame onto the police".

Felipe Curi representing security forces additionally stated that military attire, body armor, and firearms" were taken away from the bodies and showed footage appearing to show a person stripping military attire {off a corpse