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The eyewitness

An eyewitness who witnessed the results of a massive security raid in the metropolitan area has described how community members brought back badly injured victims of those who had died.

The victims "kept coming: 25, 30, 35, 40, 45...", the photographer stated. Among them were those of police officers.

A particular victim had been decapitated - additional victims were "completely mutilated", he reported. Many also had what he described as knife injuries.

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

Bruno Itan explained that he initially learned about the operation in the early hours by community members of the Alemão neighbourhood, who reached out alerting him there was a shoot-out.

The eyewitness went to the healthcare center, where the casualties were arriving.

The photographer stated that law enforcement prevented journalists from going into the Penha neighborhood, where the police action were taking place.

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

Nevertheless, the eyewitness, who spent his childhood in that neighborhood, explained he was able to make his way into the restricted zone, where he continued through the night.

He explained that Tuesday night, area inhabitants commenced searching the hillside that separates Penha from the neighboring Alemão community for loved ones who were unaccounted for after the operation.

Local people of the Penha neighbourhood organized the located casualties in a square - the documented evidence reveal the emotions of the gathered crowd.

"The brutality of the situation shook me profoundly: the grief of relatives, women collapsing, pregnant wives, crying, outraged parents," the eyewitness remembered.

Bruno Itan

The state leader of Rio state stated that the large-scale security action deploying about 2,500 law enforcement members was aimed at stopping a gang called Comando Vermelho from growing their influence.

Initially, the Rio state government claimed that sixty alleged criminals plus four law enforcement personnel" were fatally injured in the operation.

Officials subsequently stated that their "preliminary" count shows that 117 alleged criminals were fatally injured.

The legal assistance organization, that gives legal support to the poor, has calculated the overall count of fatalities to be 132.

According to researchers, the criminal organization stands as the sole illegal faction that in the past few years has managed to make territorial gains throughout Rio state.

It is widely considered among the biggest criminal organizations nationally, together with a rival criminal group, featuring a timeline dating back more than 50 years.

According to Brazilian journalist an expert, who has been covering crime in Rio over many years, Red Command "works as a system" with local criminal leaders forming part of the gang and acting as "commercial associates".

The organization concentrates largely on drug trafficking, additionally trafficking guns, gold, petroleum products, beverages cigarettes.

Per law enforcement statements, organization members are well armed and police said that while the action was underway, they came under attack from explosive-laden drones.

The governor of Rio state, the political leader, labeled organization participants as criminal extremists and described the law enforcement personnel fatally injured in the action as courageous individuals.

But the number of fatalities in the operation has received condemnation with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights saying it was "shocked".

During a press briefing the following day, Governor Castro supported law enforcement.

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

He further explained that the circumstances had escalated as the individuals fought back: "It was a consequence of the retaliation they executed and the excessive violence from the gang members."

The state leader additionally stated that the bodies displayed by locals in the neighborhood had been "tampered with".

In a post on social media, he asserted that certain victims had been removed of tactical gear that he stated they possessed "in order to shift blame onto the police".

Felipe Curi representing security forces also said that tactical gear, body armor, and arms" were stripped from the bodies and showed footage apparently demonstrating an individual cutting camouflage clothing {off a corpse