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The eyewitness

An eyewitness who documented the aftermath of a large-scale Brazilian police operation in the metropolitan area has reported how community members returned with badly injured victims of those who had died.

The victims "kept piling up: 25, 30, 35, 40, 45...", Bruno Itan stated. They included security forces.

One individual was found without a head - additional victims were "severely damaged", he explained. Many also had what appeared to be knife injuries.

In excess of 120 victims were fatally injured during the security action against a criminal group - the deadliest such raid in the city.

The photographer explained that residents first notified him about the operation early on Tuesday by local people of the Alemão neighbourhood, who reached out alerting him gunfire had erupted.

The photographer traveled to the healthcare center, where the casualties were coming in.

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

"Police officers established a perimeter and said: 'Media representatives are not allowed to pass'."

Nevertheless, the eyewitness, who spent his childhood in that neighborhood, explained he succeeded to gain access into the cordoned-off area, where he stayed through the night.

He described that Tuesday night, area inhabitants started looking the hillside that separates Penha from the neighboring Alemão community for family members who had been missing since the police raid.

Residents of the Penha neighbourhood proceeded to place the recovered bodies in an open area - the documented evidence display the reaction of the gathered crowd.

"The violence of what occurred impacted me profoundly: the sorrow of relatives, women collapsing, women carrying children, weeping, outraged parents," the reporter recounted.

The photographer

The state leader of Rio state stated that the large-scale security action involving around 2,500 officers was designed to stopping an illegal organization called Red Command from growing their influence.

Initially, state authorities claimed that sixty alleged criminals and four police officers" had been killed during the action.

Authorities later reported that early calculations indicates that 117 alleged criminals lost their lives.

The public legal service, which provides legal assistance to disadvantaged individuals, has estimated the final tally of people killed to be 132.

According to researchers, Red Command represents the unique criminal entity that recently has been able to make territorial gains across the region.

Experts commonly view one of the two largest gangs nationally, alongside First Capital Command, with a background spanning over five decades.

Per reporter a specialist, who has been covering crime in Rio for years, Red Command "operates like a franchise" with local criminal leaders affiliating with the group and becoming "commercial associates".

The criminal group concentrates largely on drug trafficking, while also dealing in weapons, precious metals, fuel, beverages and tobacco.

According to the authorities, organization members are well armed and authorities stated that during the raid, they encountered resistance from explosive-laden drones.

The state leader of the region, the political leader, characterized organization participants as drug terrorists and referred to the security forces killed in the raid as courageous individuals.

Nevertheless, the total of people killed in the security action has received condemnation from international human rights authorities stating they were "appalled".

At a news conference the following day, Governor Castro defended the police force.

"There was no objective to result in deaths. We wanted to detain everyone safely," he said.

He added that the circumstances had escalated as the individuals resisted aggressively: "It was a consequence of the resistance they executed and the excessive violence from the gang members."

The official further reported that the victims presented by community members in the area were "altered".

In a post on social media, he said that some of them had been stripped of tactical gear he said they had been wearing "in order to shift blame onto the police".

A law enforcement representative of Rio's civil police force additionally stated that "camouflage clothing, body armor, and firearms" were stripped from the bodies and presented video appearing to show an individual removing tactical gear {off a corpse