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The eyewitness

A reporter who observed the aftermath of a large-scale Brazilian police operation in Rio de Janeiro has described how residents came back with disfigured remains of people who lost their lives.

The victims "kept coming: 25, 30, 35, 40, 45...", Bruno Itan described. Among them were law enforcement personnel.

One of the bodies was discovered headless - additional victims were "completely mutilated", he reported. Numerous victims displayed what he described as knife injuries.

In excess of 120 victims lost their lives in the Tuesday operation against a criminal group - the most lethal operation Rio has experienced.

The photographer stated that he was first alerted about the operation Tuesday morning by residents of the Alemão neighbourhood, who reached out alerting him gunfire had erupted.

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

The photographer stated that law enforcement stopped members of the press from accessing the Penha neighborhood, where the police action were occurring.

"Police officers established a perimeter and announced: 'Journalists doesn't get past here'."

But Itan, who spent his childhood in the area, reported he was able to make his way into the restricted zone, where he remained through the night.

He reported during the night, community members began to search the hillside that borders the Penha neighborhood from the adjacent Alemão area for family members who were unaccounted for following the security action.

Residents of the Penha neighbourhood arranged the located casualties in a square - the photographer's images display the response of the gathered crowd.

"The violence of what occurred impacted me a lot: the pain of loved ones, women collapsing, women carrying children, sobbing, outraged parents," the photographer recalled.

The photographer

The governor of Rio state stated that the massive police operation deploying about 2,500 law enforcement members was designed to stopping an illegal organization referred to as the criminal faction from expanding its territory.

Initially, state authorities maintained that "60 suspects plus four law enforcement personnel" had been killed during the action.

They have since said that initial estimates shows that 117 individuals have been killed.

Rio's public defender's office, that gives legal support to low-income residents, has estimated the total number of fatalities to be 132.

According to researchers, Red Command is the only criminal group that in the past few years has managed to expand its territory throughout Rio state.

It is widely considered among the biggest criminal organizations in the country, alongside a rival criminal group, and has a history extending half a century.

Per Brazilian journalist Rafael Soares, who has been covering criminal activity in the city extensively, Red Command "works as a system" with neighborhood bosses affiliating with the group and acting as "commercial associates".

The gang engages primarily in illegal drug trade, additionally trafficking firearms, precious metals, fuel, alcohol cigarettes.

Per law enforcement statements, criminal affiliates are well armed and authorities stated that while the action was underway, they encountered resistance using drone-delivered explosives.

The state leader of Rio state, the government representative, described organization participants as criminal extremists and described the security forces fatally injured in the action as "heroes".

However, the count of people killed in the security action has come in for criticism from international human rights authorities stating they were "appalled".

In a media appearance the following day, the official justified security actions.

"It wasn't our intention to result in deaths. We aimed to arrest them all alive," he declared.

He further explained that the circumstances had escalated because the suspects resisted aggressively: "It was a consequence of the resistance they implemented and the excessive violence by the illegal group."

The official also said that the bodies displayed by locals in Penha were "altered".

Through a message on social media, he said that certain victims had been taken of tactical gear that he stated they possessed "to transfer accusation toward law enforcement".

A law enforcement representative from the police department further reported that military attire, vests, and weapons" were stripped from the casualties and presented video seemingly depicting a man cutting camouflage clothing {off a corpse