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The eyewitness

A photographer who observed the results of a massive security raid in the metropolitan area has recounted how residents came back with disfigured remains of those who had died.

The bodies "continued arriving: the numbers kept rising", Bruno Itan stated. The total contained security forces.

A particular victim was found without a head - others were "completely mutilated", he explained. Numerous victims displayed evidence of knife injuries.

In excess of 120 victims lost their lives in the Tuesday operation against a criminal group - the deadliest such raid in the city.

The eyewitness stated that he was first alerted to the raid early on Tuesday by community members living in Alemão, who reached out informing him gunfire had erupted.

The eyewitness went to a local medical facility, where the bodies were being brought.

Itan explained that security forces stopped members of the press from entering the Penha neighborhood, where the police action was under way.

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

Nevertheless, the eyewitness, who grew up in the area, explained he was able to gain access past the security perimeter, where he stayed until the next morning.

He explained that Tuesday night, community members started looking the elevated terrain which divides Penha from the nearby Alemão neighbourhood for loved ones who were unaccounted for since the police raid.

Local people living in Penha proceeded to place the recovered bodies in a public space - the documented evidence reveal the response of the people there.

"The violence of it all shook me profoundly: the grief of the families, women collapsing, women carrying children, crying, furious relatives," the reporter recounted.

Bruno Itan

The governor of the region announced that the large-scale security action involving around 2,500 law enforcement members was intended to preventing an illegal organization referred to as the criminal faction from increasing their control.

Originally, the Rio state government stated that sixty individuals along with four officers" were fatally injured during the action.

Authorities later reported that early calculations shows that 117 individuals were fatally injured.

The public legal service, that gives legal support to low-income residents, has estimated the overall count of fatalities to be 132.

Per investigative findings, the gang stands as the sole illegal faction which in recent years has been able to expand its territory in the state of Rio de Janeiro.

It is widely considered among the biggest criminal organizations in the country, together with First Capital Command, featuring a timeline dating back more than 50 years.

Per reporter Rafael Soares, who has been covering crime in Rio extensively, Red Command "functions as a network" with neighborhood bosses forming part of the gang and becoming "business partners".

The organization focuses mainly on narcotics distribution, additionally trafficking guns, gold, energy resources, liquor smoking products.

According to the authorities, criminal affiliates possess significant weaponry and officials reported that while the action was underway, they encountered resistance using drone-delivered explosives.

The governor of the region, the government representative, labeled gang affiliates as criminal extremists and described the law enforcement personnel fatally injured in the action as courageous individuals.

But the number of people killed during the raid has faced scrutiny from UN human rights officials stating they were "horrified".

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

"There was no objective to kill anyone. We intended to arrest them all alive," he declared.

He added that the situation had escalated because the suspects fought back: "It occurred of the counterattack they implemented and the overwhelming response by those criminals."

The official also said that the casualties displayed by locals in the area had been "tampered with".

In a post on social media, he asserted that some of them had been taken of the camouflage clothing which he claimed they wore "to transfer accusation onto the police".

A police official representing security forces also said that "camouflage clothing, body armor, and firearms" were stripped from the bodies and displayed evidence appearing to show a person stripping military attire {off a corpse