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The eyewitness

A reporter who observed the results of an extensive Brazilian police operation in Rio de Janeiro has reported how local people brought back mutilated bodies of people who lost their lives.

The bodies "kept piling up: 25, 30, 35, 40, 45...", the photographer reported. Among them were security forces.

One of the bodies had been decapitated - while others appeared "totally disfigured", he said. Several bodies showed evidence of blade trauma.

More than 120 people lost their lives during Tuesday's raid on a criminal gang - the deadliest such raid Rio has experienced.

The photographer stated that residents first notified him to the raid Tuesday morning by local people living in Alemão, who sent him messages informing him gunfire had erupted.

The photographer made his way to a local medical facility, where the casualties were coming in.

The eyewitness reported that law enforcement blocked media personnel from accessing the Penha neighborhood, where the police action were occurring.

"Security forces created a barrier and said: 'The press are not allowed to pass'."

Nevertheless, the eyewitness, who grew up in that neighborhood, explained he was able to gain access past the security perimeter, where he remained until the next morning.

He described that Tuesday night, area inhabitants started looking the hillside that borders Penha from the neighboring Alemão community for relatives who were unaccounted for since the police raid.

Community members from the Penha area arranged the located casualties in a square - and Itan's photos show the emotions of the people there.

"The brutality of it all affected me profoundly: the pain of relatives, women collapsing, expectant spouses, sobbing, furious relatives," the eyewitness remembered.

The photographer

The official of Rio state announced that the large-scale security action deploying about 2,500 officers was intended to preventing a criminal group called the criminal faction from growing their influence.

Originally, state authorities maintained that sixty individuals plus four law enforcement personnel" had been killed during the action.

Authorities later reported that initial estimates suggests that 117 "suspects" were fatally injured.

The legal assistance organization, which provides legal assistance to the poor, has estimated the overall count of casualties to be 132.

Based on expert analysis, the criminal organization is the only criminal group that recently has succeeded to expand its territory across the region.

It is widely considered one of the two largest gangs in the country, together with First Capital Command, with a background spanning over five decades.

Per Brazilian journalist a specialist, who has been covering criminal activity in the city extensively, the criminal organization "works as a system" with neighborhood bosses joining the organization and becoming "commercial associates".

The gang focuses mainly on narcotics distribution, additionally trafficking guns, precious metals, energy resources, alcohol cigarettes.

Per law enforcement statements, organization members are well armed and police said that while the action was underway, they faced assaults using drone-delivered explosives.

The official of the region, the political leader, characterized Red Command members as "narcoterrorists" and referred to the security forces who died during the operation as "heroes".

But the number of fatalities in the security action has received condemnation from UN human rights officials expressing they felt "horrified".

In a media appearance the next day, Governor Castro defended the police force.

"There was no objective to result in deaths. We wanted to take suspects into custody without harm," he said.

He added that the events intensified because the suspects resisted aggressively: "It resulted of the resistance they implemented and the overwhelming response from the gang members."

The state leader additionally stated that the bodies shown by residents in Penha were "altered".

In a post through digital channels, he claimed that some of them had been removed of the camouflage clothing that he stated they possessed "in order to shift blame to security forces".

Felipe Curi representing security forces additionally stated that military attire, vests, and weapons" were taken away from the casualties and displayed evidence appearing to show a man removing tactical gear {off a corpse