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The eyewitness

A reporter who observed the consequences of an extensive law enforcement action in the metropolitan area has recounted how residents returned with badly injured victims of the deceased individuals.

The victims "continued arriving: the count kept increasing", the photographer described. Among them were law enforcement personnel.

A particular victim had been decapitated - while others appeared "totally disfigured", he reported. Several bodies showed what he described as blade trauma.

In excess of 120 victims were fatally injured during the security action on a criminal gang - the bloodiest action Rio has experienced.

Bruno Itan explained that he initially learned concerning the action early on Tuesday by community members from the Alemão area, who sent him messages alerting him there was a shoot-out.

The reporter traveled to the Getúlio Vargas hospital, where the bodies were being brought.

The eyewitness reported that security forces prevented journalists from going into the operation zone, where the operation was under way.

"Police officers formed a line and announced: 'Journalists cannot proceed beyond this point'."

But Itan, who spent his childhood in that neighborhood, stated he managed to make his way into the cordoned-off area, where he stayed through the night.

He reported during the night, area inhabitants commenced searching the mountainous area that separates the Penha neighborhood from the neighboring Alemão community for relatives who had been missing after the operation.

Community members of the Penha neighbourhood proceeded to place the discovered victims in a public space - the documented evidence show the reaction of the people there.

"The violence of the situation impacted me a lot: the pain of relatives, women collapsing, women carrying children, weeping, furious relatives," the reporter recounted.

The photographer

The governor of Rio state announced that the large-scale security action deploying about 2,500 security personnel was intended to halting an illegal organization called Red Command from increasing their control.

At first, state authorities maintained that sixty alleged criminals plus four law enforcement personnel" had been killed in the raid.

Officials subsequently stated that initial estimates suggests that 117 individuals have been killed.

The public legal service, that gives legal support to low-income residents, has calculated the overall count of casualties to be 132.

Based on expert analysis, the criminal organization represents the unique criminal entity that recently has managed to increase its control across the region.

It is widely considered as a major illegal faction nationally, together with a rival criminal group, and has a history extending half a century.

Based on Brazilian journalist Rafael Soares, who has long reported on criminal activity in the city over many years, the gang "works as a system" with local criminal leaders joining the organization and serving as "operational allies".

The gang concentrates largely on drug trafficking, additionally trafficking weapons, gold, fuel, alcohol and tobacco.

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

The governor of the region, the government representative, characterized organization participants as criminal extremists and called the four police officers fatally injured in the action as courageous individuals.

But the number of people killed in the security action has come in for criticism with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights expressing they felt "shocked".

During a press briefing the next day, Governor Castro justified security actions.

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

He continued that the circumstances intensified as the individuals resisted aggressively: "It occurred of the retaliation they implemented and the excessive violence from the gang members."

The state leader further reported that the bodies shown by residents in Penha had been "tampered with".

Through a message through digital channels, he asserted that particular individuals had been taken of tactical gear that he stated they possessed "to transfer accusation to security forces".

A police official of Rio's civil police force also said that "camouflage clothing, protective equipment, and firearms" were taken away from the victims and displayed evidence apparently demonstrating a man cutting camouflage clothing {off a corpse