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The photographer

A reporter who witnessed the consequences of a large-scale law enforcement action in the metropolitan area has described how community members came back with badly injured victims of people who lost their lives.

The bodies "kept coming: the count kept increasing", Bruno Itan described. The total contained security forces.

A particular victim was found without a head - additional victims were "completely mutilated", he said. Several bodies showed what he described as blade trauma.

Over 120 individuals were fatally injured during the security action against a criminal group - the most lethal operation Rio has experienced.

Bruno Itan reported that he was first alerted concerning the action Tuesday morning by local people of the Alemão neighbourhood, who contacted him informing him gunfire had erupted.

The photographer traveled to the healthcare center, where the victims were arriving.

Itan explained that law enforcement blocked media personnel from entering the affected area, where the security measures were occurring.

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

Nevertheless, the eyewitness, who grew up in that neighborhood, explained he managed to gain access past the security perimeter, where he stayed until dawn.

He explained that evening, community members began to search the hillside that separates Penha from the neighboring Alemão community for family members who were unaccounted for since the police raid.

Community members from the Penha area arranged the recovered bodies in a public space - the documented evidence reveal the response of the gathered crowd.

"The harsh reality of it all shook me profoundly: the grief of loved ones, parents losing consciousness, pregnant wives, weeping, angry family members," the eyewitness remembered.

Bruno Itan

The official of the state declared that the large-scale security action with approximately 2,500 security personnel was aimed at halting a gang called the criminal faction from expanding its territory.

Initially, local officials stated that sixty alleged criminals and four police officers" were fatally injured in the raid.

Authorities later reported that their "preliminary" count shows that 117 alleged criminals were fatally injured.

Rio's public defender's office, that gives legal support to the poor, has estimated the overall count of casualties as 132.

Based on expert analysis, the gang is the only criminal group which in recent years has been able to expand its territory across the region.

It is widely considered as a major illegal faction nationally, together with a rival criminal group, featuring a timeline extending half a century.

Per correspondent an expert, who has long reported on criminal activity in the city for years, Red Command "functions as a network" with neighborhood bosses forming part of the gang and acting as "commercial associates".

The gang focuses mainly on drug trafficking, additionally trafficking weapons, precious metals, fuel, alcohol and tobacco.

Per law enforcement statements, criminal affiliates are well armed and officials reported that throughout the operation, they came under attack from explosive-laden drones.

The official of Rio state, the government representative, described gang affiliates as drug terrorists and referred to the security forces who died during the operation as "heroes".

Nevertheless, the total of casualties in the operation has received condemnation with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights expressing they felt "horrified".

During a press briefing on Wednesday, Governor Castro supported law enforcement.

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

He added that the situation intensified due to the alleged criminals had retaliated: "It resulted of the resistance they carried out and the excessive violence by those criminals."

The official further reported that the bodies shown by residents in Penha had been "manipulated".

In a post on online platforms, he said that certain victims had been stripped of military-style attire which he claimed they wore "in order to shift blame toward law enforcement".

A police official of Rio's civil police force also said that tactical gear, body armor, and arms" had been removed from the bodies and presented video seemingly depicting a man stripping military attire {off a corpse