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The photographer

A photographer who observed the results of a massive Brazilian police operation in the metropolitan area has described how residents returned with badly injured victims of people who lost their lives.

The bodies "kept piling up: the numbers kept rising", Bruno Itan stated. Among them were those of police officers.

One individual had been decapitated - others were "totally disfigured", he said. Several bodies showed what appeared to be knife injuries.

More than 120 people lost their lives during the security action on a criminal gang - the bloodiest action Rio has experienced.

The photographer explained that residents first notified him about the operation in the early hours by local people from the Alemão area, who reached out alerting him gunfire had erupted.

The reporter went to the Getúlio Vargas hospital, where the casualties were coming in.

Itan explained that the police blocked media personnel from accessing the operation zone, where the operation were occurring.

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

Nevertheless, the eyewitness, who spent his childhood in the area, explained he succeeded to gain access into the cordoned-off area, where he remained until the next morning.

He explained that evening, local residents started looking the elevated terrain that separates the community of Penha and the adjacent Alemão area for relatives who had been missing since the police raid.

Local people of the Penha neighbourhood arranged the recovered bodies in a square - the photographer's images reveal the emotions of the people there.

"The harsh reality of the situation shook me profoundly: the pain of loved ones, women collapsing, women carrying children, weeping, outraged parents," the photographer recalled.

Bruno Itan

The governor of Rio state declared that the extensive law enforcement effort with approximately 2,500 security personnel was intended to stopping a criminal group referred to as the criminal faction from expanding its territory.

Initially, the Rio state government maintained that sixty alleged criminals plus four law enforcement personnel" lost their lives in the operation.

They have since said that initial estimates shows that 117 "suspects" have been killed.

The legal assistance organization, that offers legal help to disadvantaged individuals, has calculated the final tally of people killed at 132.

Per investigative findings, the gang is the only criminal group that recently has succeeded to expand its territory in the state of Rio de Janeiro.

It is generally regarded among the biggest criminal organizations nationally, in company with another major gang, featuring a timeline dating back more than 50 years.

According to Brazilian journalist Rafael Soares, with extensive experience documenting criminal activity in the city extensively, Red Command "works as a system" with local criminal leaders forming part of the gang and serving as "business partners".

The criminal group engages primarily in drug trafficking, additionally trafficking guns, valuable minerals, petroleum products, liquor smoking products.

According to the authorities, criminal affiliates possess significant weaponry and authorities stated that throughout the operation, they came under attack using drone-delivered explosives.

The governor of the state, Cláudio Castro, labeled Red Command members as criminal extremists and referred to the security forces killed in the raid as courageous individuals.

Nevertheless, the total of fatalities during the raid has faced scrutiny with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights expressing they felt "horrified".

In a media appearance on Wednesday, the state leader defended the police force.

"It wasn't our intention to cause fatalities. We intended to arrest them all alive," he declared.

He continued that the circumstances had escalated because the suspects had retaliated: "It resulted of the retaliation they carried out and the disproportionate use of force from the gang members."

The official further reported that the casualties presented by community members in Penha had been "manipulated".

In a post on social media, he claimed that some of them had been removed of tactical gear which he claimed they wore "in order to shift blame to security forces".

A law enforcement representative of Rio's civil police force also said that tactical gear, vests, and firearms" were stripped from the victims and displayed evidence seemingly depicting a man stripping military attire {off a corpse