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Bruno Itan

A reporter who documented the consequences of an extensive law enforcement action in the Brazilian city has described how residents brought back mutilated bodies of those who had died.

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

One of the bodies was discovered headless - while others appeared "totally disfigured", he reported. Many also had what he described as blade trauma.

In excess of 120 victims lost their lives during the security action targeting an illegal organization - the bloodiest action the municipality has seen.

The photographer explained that residents first notified him concerning the action Tuesday morning by local people of the Alemão neighbourhood, who contacted him telling him an armed confrontation was occurring.

The eyewitness went to the Getúlio Vargas hospital, where the casualties were arriving.

The eyewitness reported that security forces stopped members of the press from entering the operation zone, where the security measures was under way.

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

But Itan, who grew up in that neighborhood, explained he succeeded to make his way into the restricted zone, where he stayed until dawn.

He explained that evening, community members started looking the elevated terrain which divides the Penha neighborhood from the adjacent Alemão area for loved ones who were unaccounted for since the police raid.

Local people from the Penha area organized the located casualties in a public space - and Itan's photos reveal the emotions of those present.

"The violence of the situation impacted me deeply: the pain of loved ones, mothers fainting, expectant spouses, crying, angry family members," the reporter recounted.

The eyewitness

The governor of Rio state stated that the massive police operation with approximately 2,500 officers was intended to stopping a criminal group called Red Command from increasing their control.

At first, state authorities maintained that sixty individuals plus four law enforcement personnel" were fatally injured in the raid.

Authorities later reported that their "preliminary" count suggests that 117 "suspects" have been killed.

The public legal service, which provides legal assistance to the poor, has calculated the total number of people killed as 132.

Based on expert analysis, the criminal organization stands as the sole illegal faction that in the past few years has managed to increase its control across the region.

It is generally regarded among the biggest criminal organizations in the country, alongside a rival criminal group, and has a history dating back more than 50 years.

Per correspondent Rafael Soares, who has long reported on criminal activity in the city for years, the criminal organization "works as a system" with local criminal leaders forming part of the gang and becoming "commercial associates".

The gang engages primarily in illegal drug trade, while also dealing in firearms, valuable minerals, energy resources, beverages cigarettes.

Per law enforcement statements, organization members possess significant weaponry and police said that while the action was underway, they encountered resistance using drone-delivered explosives.

The official of the state, the political leader, characterized gang affiliates as "narcoterrorists" and described the security forces fatally injured in the action as brave public servants.

Nevertheless, the total of fatalities in the security action has faced scrutiny with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights stating they were "horrified".

At a news conference the following day, the official supported law enforcement.

"It wasn't our intention to kill anyone. We wanted to arrest them all alive," he said.

He added that the circumstances worsened because the suspects resisted aggressively: "It resulted of the resistance they executed and the excessive violence by those criminals."

The governor further reported that the casualties displayed by locals in Penha were "altered".

In a post on online platforms, he asserted that some of them had been stripped of military-style attire that he stated they possessed "to transfer accusation to security forces".

Felipe Curi from the police department additionally stated that military attire, vests, and weapons" were stripped from the casualties and presented video seemingly depicting an individual stripping military attire {off a corpse