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Bruno Itan

An eyewitness who witnessed the consequences of a large-scale security raid in the Brazilian city has reported how community members came back with badly injured victims of people who lost their lives.

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

One individual was found without a head - while others appeared "completely mutilated", he reported. Several bodies showed what he described as knife injuries.

In excess of 120 victims lost their lives during the security action against a criminal group - the deadliest such raid Rio has experienced.

The photographer stated that residents first notified him about the operation early on Tuesday by community members living in Alemão, who contacted him alerting him gunfire had erupted.

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

Itan explained that the police stopped members of the press from going into the affected area, where the operation was under way.

"Police officers formed a line and declared: 'Media representatives cannot proceed beyond this point'."

However, the photographer, who was raised in the area, explained he managed to enter into the restricted zone, where he continued through the night.

He explained that Tuesday night, community members commenced searching the elevated terrain which divides the community of Penha and the neighboring Alemão community for loved ones whose whereabouts were unknown since the police raid.

Residents from the Penha area proceeded to place the recovered bodies in an open area - the documented evidence display the reaction of the people there.

"The violence of the situation impacted me profoundly: the pain of the families, mothers fainting, expectant spouses, crying, outraged parents," the eyewitness remembered.

Bruno Itan

The state leader of the region declared that the massive police operation with approximately 2,500 officers was designed to preventing a gang known as the criminal faction from expanding its territory.

Originally, the Rio state government stated that sixty individuals along with four officers" lost their lives in the operation.

Authorities later reported that initial estimates indicates that 117 individuals were fatally injured.

The legal assistance organization, that offers legal help to disadvantaged individuals, has put the final tally of people killed at 132.

Per investigative findings, the criminal organization represents the unique criminal entity that in the past few years has been able to expand its territory across the region.

It is widely considered one of the two largest gangs in Brazil, together with a rival criminal group, featuring a timeline dating back more than 50 years.

According to reporter a specialist, who has long reported on crime in Rio for years, Red Command "works as a system" with neighborhood bosses forming part of the gang and becoming "commercial associates".

The organization concentrates largely on drug trafficking, while also dealing in firearms, gold, petroleum products, beverages and tobacco.

Per law enforcement statements, criminal affiliates are well armed and officials reported that while the action was underway, they came under attack via weaponized unmanned aircraft.

The governor of the region, Cláudio Castro, characterized Red Command members as criminal extremists and referred to the four police officers killed in the raid as brave public servants.

But the number of fatalities in the security action has received condemnation from international human rights authorities stating they were "shocked".

At a news conference the next day, the state leader supported law enforcement.

"We did not plan to result in deaths. We intended to take suspects into custody without harm," he declared.

He added that the situation had escalated due to the alleged criminals fought back: "It was a consequence of the retaliation they executed and the overwhelming response by those criminals."

The official additionally stated that the victims shown by residents in the neighborhood were "altered".

Via a statement on social media, he asserted that certain victims had been removed of the camouflage clothing that he stated they possessed "in order to shift blame toward law enforcement".

A law enforcement representative of Rio's civil police force also said that military attire, vests, and weapons" were stripped from the casualties and displayed evidence appearing to show a person cutting camouflage clothing {off a corpse