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The photographer

A photographer who witnessed the consequences of an extensive law enforcement action in the metropolitan area has described how residents returned with badly injured victims of those who had died.

The victims "kept piling up: 25, 30, 35, 40, 45...", the eyewitness reported. They included security forces.

One individual had been decapitated - while others appeared "totally disfigured", he said. Numerous victims displayed what appeared to be blade trauma.

Over 120 individuals lost their lives in the Tuesday operation on a criminal gang - the bloodiest action the municipality has seen.

The photographer explained that residents first notified him about the operation Tuesday morning by community members of the Alemão neighbourhood, who sent him messages alerting him an armed confrontation was occurring.

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

The eyewitness reported that security forces blocked media personnel from going into the affected area, where the police action were taking place.

"Law enforcement personnel formed a line and said: 'The press doesn't get past here'."

However, the photographer, who grew up in the community, reported he managed to enter into the cordoned-off area, where he remained until dawn.

He described that evening, area inhabitants began to search the mountainous area that separates the Penha neighborhood from the neighboring Alemão community for relatives who were unaccounted for after the operation.

Local people living in Penha arranged the recovered bodies in a square - and Itan's photos show the response of the people there.

"The brutality of it all affected me a lot: the pain of loved ones, mothers fainting, women carrying children, weeping, furious relatives," the photographer recalled.

The eyewitness

The governor of the region announced that the massive police operation deploying about 2,500 security personnel was designed to halting a criminal group referred to as the criminal faction from expanding its territory.

Initially, local officials stated that sixty alleged criminals plus four law enforcement personnel" were fatally injured in the raid.

Officials subsequently stated that early calculations indicates that 117 "suspects" were fatally injured.

Rio's public defender's office, which provides legal assistance to the poor, has put the final tally of people killed at 132.

Per investigative findings, Red Command stands as the sole illegal faction which in recent years has been able to increase its control across the region.

Experts commonly view as a major illegal faction in Brazil, in company with a rival criminal group, with a background spanning over five decades.

According to correspondent an expert, who has long reported on crime in Rio over many years, the gang "works as a system" with area gang leaders joining the organization and acting as "operational allies".

The criminal group focuses mainly on narcotics distribution, additionally trafficking guns, valuable minerals, energy resources, alcohol and tobacco.

According to the authorities, gang members have substantial firearms and officials reported that during the raid, they came under attack via weaponized unmanned aircraft.

The governor of the region, Cláudio Castro, described organization participants as drug terrorists and called the four police officers fatally injured in the action as courageous individuals.

Nevertheless, the total of fatalities in the operation has come in for criticism from international human rights authorities expressing they felt "horrified".

At a news conference the following day, Governor Castro defended the police force.

"It wasn't our intention to cause fatalities. We aimed to take suspects into custody without harm," he stated.

He continued that the circumstances worsened because the suspects had retaliated: "It resulted of the retaliation they implemented and the excessive violence from the gang members."

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

Via a statement on social media, he said that particular individuals had been stripped of military-style attire he said they had been wearing "in order to shift blame to security forces".

Felipe Curi representing security forces additionally stated that "camouflage clothing, protective equipment, and firearms" were stripped from the victims and displayed evidence apparently demonstrating a man stripping military attire {off a corpse