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The photographer

An eyewitness who witnessed the results of an extensive law enforcement action in the Brazilian city has described how local people brought back badly injured victims of people who lost their lives.

The bodies "continued arriving: 25, 30, 35, 40, 45...", the photographer described. The total contained security forces.

One of the bodies was found without a head - additional victims were "totally disfigured", he reported. Several bodies showed what appeared to be blade trauma.

In excess of 120 victims were killed during Tuesday's raid targeting an illegal organization - the most lethal operation the municipality has seen.

Bruno Itan explained that he was first alerted concerning the action in the early hours by local people of the Alemão neighbourhood, who contacted him alerting him an armed confrontation was occurring.

The photographer made his way to a local medical facility, where the bodies were coming in.

Itan explained that the police stopped members of the press from accessing the operation zone, where the security measures was under way.

"Law enforcement personnel created a barrier and said: 'Media representatives are not allowed to pass'."

However, the photographer, who was raised in that neighborhood, explained he was able to enter into the restricted zone, where he remained until dawn.

He described during the night, local residents commenced searching the mountainous area that borders Penha from the nearby Alemão neighbourhood for loved ones whose whereabouts were unknown since the police raid.

Residents of the Penha neighbourhood organized the recovered bodies in a square - the photographer's images display the reaction of the gathered crowd.

"The brutality of what occurred shook me profoundly: the pain of the families, women collapsing, women carrying children, sobbing, outraged parents," the photographer recalled.

The photographer

The official of the region announced that the large-scale security action deploying about 2,500 law enforcement members was designed to preventing a gang called the criminal faction from expanding its territory.

Originally, local officials maintained that sixty individuals along with four officers" lost their lives during the action.

Authorities later reported that early calculations suggests that 117 individuals lost their lives.

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

Per investigative findings, Red Command is the only criminal group that recently has succeeded to increase its control across the region.

It is widely considered as a major illegal faction nationally, alongside a rival criminal group, and has a history dating back more than 50 years.

Based on correspondent Rafael Soares, with extensive experience documenting illegal operations in Rio over many years, Red Command "works as a system" with neighborhood bosses forming part of the gang and acting as "operational allies".

The organization focuses mainly on drug trafficking, but also smuggles weapons, precious metals, petroleum products, liquor and tobacco.

Per law enforcement statements, organization members possess significant weaponry and officials reported that during the raid, they encountered resistance via weaponized unmanned aircraft.

The state leader of the region, Cláudio Castro, labeled gang affiliates as "narcoterrorists" and referred to the four police officers who died during the operation as courageous individuals.

But the number of fatalities in the operation has received condemnation from UN human rights officials stating they were "horrified".

At a news conference the next day, the state leader defended the police force.

"There was no objective to result in deaths. We aimed to take suspects into custody without harm," he stated.

He further explained that the circumstances intensified as the individuals resisted aggressively: "It was a consequence of the counterattack they carried out and the overwhelming response from the gang members."

The governor also said that the bodies presented by community members in the neighborhood had been "manipulated".

In a post through digital channels, he said that certain victims had been stripped of military-style attire he said they had been wearing "to redirect responsibility onto the police".

A law enforcement representative of Rio's civil police force also said that "camouflage clothing, protective equipment, and arms" had been removed from the victims and presented video appearing to show a man cutting camouflage clothing {off a corpse