The victims kept arriving - eyewitness describes lethal Rio security action

The eyewitness

An eyewitness who observed the aftermath of an extensive security raid in the Brazilian city has described how community members came back with mutilated bodies of those who had died.

The casualties "kept coming: the numbers kept rising", Bruno Itan described. They included security forces.

One of the bodies was found without a head - while others appeared "totally disfigured", he said. Numerous victims displayed what appeared to be knife injuries.

In excess of 120 victims were fatally injured during Tuesday's raid on a criminal gang - the deadliest such raid the municipality has seen.

The eyewitness explained that he initially learned concerning the action in the early hours by local people of the Alemão neighbourhood, who reached out telling him gunfire had erupted.

The reporter made his way to the Getúlio Vargas hospital, where the casualties were coming in.

The eyewitness reported that law enforcement blocked media personnel from accessing the affected area, where the police action was under way.

"Security forces formed a line and declared: 'Media representatives are not allowed to pass'."

Nevertheless, the eyewitness, who grew up in that neighborhood, stated he was able to make his way into the cordoned-off area, where he stayed through the night.

He explained that Tuesday night, local residents started looking the hillside which divides the community of Penha and the nearby Alemão neighbourhood for loved ones whose whereabouts were unknown following the security action.

Community members from the Penha area organized the located casualties in an open area - the photographer's images show the response of those present.

"The violence of it all impacted me profoundly: the grief of the families, women collapsing, women carrying children, crying, angry family members," the reporter recounted.

The photographer

The governor of Rio state declared that the extensive law enforcement effort with approximately 2,500 law enforcement members was designed to halting a gang referred to as Red Command from expanding its territory.

Initially, local officials maintained that sixty alleged criminals along with four officers" had been killed during the action.

They have since said that initial estimates shows that 117 "suspects" lost their lives.

The public legal service, which provides legal assistance to low-income residents, has put the overall count of casualties to be 132.

Per investigative findings, Red Command is the only criminal group that in the past few years has managed to expand its territory in the state of Rio de Janeiro.

Experts commonly view among the biggest criminal organizations nationally, together with First Capital Command, with a background dating back more than 50 years.

Based on Brazilian journalist Rafael Soares, with extensive experience documenting illegal operations in Rio extensively, the gang "functions as a network" with local criminal leaders affiliating with the group and becoming "business partners".

The criminal group engages primarily in narcotics distribution, additionally trafficking guns, gold, fuel, alcohol cigarettes.

According to the authorities, criminal affiliates have substantial firearms and officials reported that during the raid, they faced assaults from explosive-laden drones.

The state leader of the state, Cláudio Castro, labeled organization participants as drug terrorists and called the four police officers who died during the operation as courageous individuals.

But the number of fatalities in the operation has come in for criticism from UN human rights officials expressing they felt "shocked".

In a media appearance on Wednesday, the official supported law enforcement.

"We did not plan to kill anyone. We aimed to arrest them all alive," he declared.

He added that the events worsened because the suspects resisted aggressively: "It resulted of the retaliation they carried out and the disproportionate use of force from the gang members."

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

Through a message on social media, he claimed that particular individuals had been removed of the camouflage clothing which he claimed they wore "in order to shift blame onto the police".

Felipe Curi from the police department further reported that "camouflage clothing, body armor, and firearms" were stripped from the victims and presented video appearing to show a person stripping military attire {off a corpse