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The photographer

A photographer who witnessed the results of a massive security raid in the metropolitan area has reported how local people returned with badly injured victims of people who lost their lives.

The victims "kept coming: the numbers kept rising", the photographer described. Among them were security forces.

One of the bodies had been decapitated - while others appeared "completely mutilated", he said. Several bodies showed what appeared to be knife injuries.

Over 120 individuals lost their lives in the Tuesday operation on a criminal gang - the deadliest such raid Rio has experienced.

The photographer reported that he initially learned to the raid early on Tuesday by community members from the Alemão area, who reached out alerting him there was a shoot-out.

The reporter traveled to the healthcare center, where the casualties were being brought.

Itan explained that security forces blocked media personnel from entering the operation zone, where the police action was under way.

"Police officers formed a line and announced: 'The press doesn't get past here'."

But Itan, who grew up in the community, reported he succeeded to gain access into the cordoned-off area, where he continued until dawn.

He described during the night, community members began to search the elevated terrain that borders the community of Penha and the nearby Alemão neighbourhood for family members whose whereabouts were unknown since the police raid.

Community members of the Penha neighbourhood arranged the recovered bodies in a public space - the documented evidence display the emotions of the gathered crowd.

"The brutality of what occurred affected me profoundly: the grief of relatives, parents losing consciousness, pregnant wives, sobbing, outraged parents," the photographer recalled.

The eyewitness

The state leader of Rio state stated that the extensive law enforcement effort involving around 2,500 officers was intended to preventing a criminal group called the criminal faction from expanding its territory.

Originally, state authorities stated that sixty alleged criminals plus four law enforcement personnel" had been killed in the operation.

They have since said that initial estimates indicates that 117 alleged criminals have been killed.

The public legal service, that gives legal support to the poor, has calculated the final tally of fatalities to be 132.

According to researchers, Red Command represents the unique criminal entity which in recent years has been able to make territorial gains in the state of Rio de Janeiro.

Experts commonly view as a major illegal faction in Brazil, in company with First Capital Command, featuring a timeline extending half a century.

According to correspondent Rafael Soares, who has been covering crime in Rio for years, the criminal organization "functions as a network" with area gang leaders joining the organization and becoming "business partners".

The organization concentrates largely on narcotics distribution, additionally trafficking firearms, gold, petroleum products, liquor smoking products.

Based on official reports, gang members have substantial firearms and police said that throughout the operation, they came under attack via weaponized unmanned aircraft.

The governor of the state, the political leader, labeled organization participants as criminal extremists and referred to the security forces fatally injured in the action as brave public servants.

But the number of casualties in the security action has received condemnation with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights saying it was "horrified".

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

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

He added that the situation worsened due to the alleged criminals resisted aggressively: "It resulted of the counterattack they carried out and the excessive violence by those criminals."

The state leader also said that the victims shown by residents in the neighborhood had been "manipulated".

Through a message through digital channels, he asserted that some of them had been stripped of military-style attire that he stated they possessed "in order to shift blame toward law enforcement".

A law enforcement representative from the police department also said that military attire, protective equipment, and arms" were stripped from the casualties and presented video appearing to show an individual cutting camouflage clothing {off a corpse