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Bruno Itan

A reporter who observed the aftermath of an extensive Brazilian police operation in the metropolitan area has described how community members returned with mutilated bodies of people who lost their lives.

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

One of the bodies was found without a head - while others appeared "completely mutilated", he explained. Numerous victims displayed evidence of stab wounds.

In excess of 120 victims were fatally injured in the Tuesday operation against a criminal group - the bloodiest action Rio has experienced.

Bruno Itan stated that residents first notified him about the operation Tuesday morning by residents living in Alemão, who reached out alerting him there was a shoot-out.

The photographer traveled to a local medical facility, where the casualties were arriving.

The eyewitness reported that the police stopped members of the press from going into the affected area, where the police action was under way.

"Police officers created a barrier and declared: 'The press cannot proceed beyond this point'."

However, the photographer, who spent his childhood in that neighborhood, stated he succeeded to gain access into the restricted zone, where he remained through the night.

He reported that Tuesday night, area inhabitants began to search the elevated terrain that borders the Penha neighborhood from the adjacent Alemão area for loved ones who had been missing after the operation.

Residents from the Penha area proceeded to place the discovered victims in a square - and Itan's photos show the reaction of the gathered crowd.

"The harsh reality of it all impacted me a lot: the sorrow of the families, parents losing consciousness, women carrying children, crying, angry family members," the eyewitness remembered.

The eyewitness

The official of the state stated that the large-scale security action involving around 2,500 security personnel was designed to halting a gang referred to as the criminal faction from increasing their control.

At first, the Rio state government maintained that sixty individuals along with four officers" were fatally injured during the action.

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

Rio's public defender's office, that gives legal support to low-income residents, has calculated the final tally of people killed to be 132.

Per investigative findings, the gang stands as the sole illegal faction that recently has managed to increase its control throughout Rio state.

It is widely considered as a major illegal faction nationally, in company with First Capital Command, featuring a timeline spanning over five decades.

According to reporter a specialist, with extensive experience documenting criminal activity in the city for years, the gang "functions as a network" with local criminal leaders joining the organization and acting as "commercial associates".

The criminal group concentrates largely on drug trafficking, but also smuggles guns, precious metals, fuel, liquor cigarettes.

Per law enforcement statements, organization members possess significant weaponry and police said that during the raid, they came under attack from explosive-laden drones.

The governor of Rio state, the political leader, labeled Red Command members as "narcoterrorists" and described the security forces who died during the operation as courageous individuals.

Nevertheless, the total of people killed in the operation has received condemnation with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights saying it was "shocked".

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

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

He further explained that the events intensified because the suspects fought back: "It was a consequence of the resistance they implemented and the excessive violence by those criminals."

The state leader further reported that the casualties displayed by locals in the neighborhood had been "manipulated".

Via a statement through digital channels, he claimed that some of them had been stripped of tactical gear which he claimed they wore "to transfer accusation onto the police".

A law enforcement representative of Rio's civil police force further reported that "camouflage clothing, body armor, and firearms" had been removed from the victims and presented video appearing to show an individual cutting camouflage clothing {off a corpse