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The eyewitness

A reporter who documented the aftermath of a large-scale security raid in the metropolitan area has described how residents brought back disfigured remains of those who had died.

The bodies "kept piling up: the numbers kept rising", Bruno Itan described. Among them were security forces.

One individual was discovered headless - while others appeared "totally disfigured", he said. Many also had what appeared to be blade trauma.

In excess of 120 victims were killed during the security action targeting an illegal organization - the deadliest such raid in the city.

The eyewitness explained that he initially learned about the operation in the early hours by community members from the Alemão area, who contacted him alerting him there was a shoot-out.

The photographer made his way to the Getúlio Vargas hospital, where the casualties were being brought.

The eyewitness reported that security forces stopped members of the press from entering the operation zone, where the security measures were taking place.

"Security forces established a perimeter and announced: 'Journalists cannot proceed beyond this point'."

However, the photographer, who spent his childhood in that neighborhood, stated he succeeded to make his way past the security perimeter, where he stayed until the next morning.

He described that evening, local residents commenced searching the hillside that borders the Penha neighborhood from the adjacent Alemão area for relatives who were unaccounted for following the security action.

Community members living in Penha proceeded to place the recovered bodies in a square - and Itan's photos display the emotions of the gathered crowd.

"The harsh reality of the situation affected me deeply: the grief of relatives, mothers fainting, women carrying children, weeping, furious relatives," the reporter recounted.

The photographer

The state leader of the state announced that the large-scale security action deploying about 2,500 officers was intended to halting a gang known as Red Command from expanding its territory.

Originally, local officials maintained that "60 suspects and four police officers" were fatally injured during the action.

They have since said that their "preliminary" count indicates that 117 alleged criminals were fatally injured.

Rio's public defender's office, that offers legal help to the poor, has put the total number of casualties at 132.

According to researchers, Red Command stands as the sole illegal faction that recently has managed to make territorial gains across the region.

Experts commonly view one of the two largest gangs in Brazil, in company with another major gang, with a background spanning over five decades.

Based on Brazilian journalist a specialist, with extensive experience documenting crime in Rio extensively, the gang "functions as a network" with local criminal leaders forming part of the gang and becoming "business partners".

The gang focuses mainly on illegal drug trade, but also smuggles guns, valuable minerals, petroleum products, alcohol and tobacco.

Based on official reports, organization members are well armed and officials reported that while the action was underway, they faced assaults using drone-delivered explosives.

The official of the region, the government representative, described Red Command members as "narcoterrorists" and called the four police officers killed in the raid as "heroes".

But the number of fatalities in the security action has received condemnation with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights stating they were "horrified".

In a media appearance the next day, the state leader supported law enforcement.

"We did not plan to cause fatalities. We aimed to take suspects into custody without harm," he said.

He added that the circumstances had escalated because the suspects fought back: "It was a consequence of the retaliation they implemented and the excessive violence from the gang members."

The state leader also said that the casualties presented by community members in the neighborhood had been "tampered with".

Via a statement through digital channels, he claimed that some of them had been stripped of military-style attire which he claimed they wore "to redirect responsibility to security forces".

Felipe Curi of Rio's civil police force further reported that "camouflage clothing, vests, and arms" were taken away from the victims and presented video appearing to show an individual cutting camouflage clothing {off a corpse