The casualties continued piling up - eyewitness describes fatal Rio security action

The photographer

A photographer who documented the aftermath of a massive law enforcement action in the Brazilian city has recounted how community members returned with badly injured victims of people who lost their lives.

The bodies "continued arriving: 25, 30, 35, 40, 45...", the eyewitness described. The total contained those of police officers.

A particular victim was discovered headless - others were "severely damaged", he explained. Numerous victims displayed what he described as blade trauma.

More than 120 people were killed during Tuesday's raid against a criminal group - the bloodiest action the municipality has seen.

Bruno Itan explained that he was first alerted about the operation early on Tuesday by residents living in Alemão, who reached out alerting him gunfire had erupted.

The reporter traveled to the healthcare center, where the bodies were arriving.

The eyewitness reported that law enforcement prevented journalists from going into the Penha neighborhood, where the operation was under way.

"Police officers created a barrier and announced: 'Journalists cannot proceed beyond this point'."

However, the photographer, who was raised in the area, stated he succeeded to enter into the restricted zone, where he stayed through the night.

He reported that Tuesday night, community members commenced searching the mountainous area that borders the Penha neighborhood from the nearby Alemão neighbourhood for family members whose whereabouts were unknown after the operation.

Residents of the Penha neighbourhood proceeded to place the discovered victims in an open area - and Itan's photos reveal the response of the gathered crowd.

"The violence of the situation affected me a lot: the grief of relatives, parents losing consciousness, women carrying children, crying, angry family members," the photographer recalled.

The photographer

The official of the state declared that the large-scale security action with approximately 2,500 law enforcement members was aimed at stopping a criminal group called the criminal faction from growing their influence.

Originally, local officials maintained that sixty individuals along with four officers" were fatally injured in the raid.

Officials subsequently stated that early calculations suggests that 117 individuals have been killed.

The public legal service, that gives legal support to disadvantaged individuals, has put the final tally of fatalities as 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 throughout Rio state.

Experts commonly view as a major illegal faction in the country, together with another major gang, and has a history extending half a century.

Based on correspondent Rafael Soares, who has long reported on crime in Rio for years, the gang "operates like a franchise" with area gang leaders joining the organization and becoming "business partners".

The criminal group concentrates largely on narcotics distribution, but also smuggles weapons, gold, petroleum products, liquor smoking products.

According to the authorities, gang members possess significant weaponry and authorities stated that while the action was underway, they faced assaults via weaponized unmanned aircraft.

The official of Rio state, the government representative, described Red Command members as drug terrorists and called the four police officers fatally injured in the action as courageous individuals.

Nevertheless, the total of fatalities in the security action has received condemnation with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights expressing they felt "shocked".

At a news conference the following day, the official supported law enforcement.

"We did not plan to cause fatalities. We intended to arrest them all alive," he declared.

He continued that the circumstances had escalated because the suspects had retaliated: "It occurred of the resistance they executed and the disproportionate use of force by those criminals."

The state leader also said that the victims displayed by locals in the area had been "manipulated".

In a post on online platforms, he asserted that some of them had been removed of military-style attire he said they had been wearing "to transfer accusation to security forces".

A police official of Rio's civil police force additionally stated that tactical gear, protective equipment, and firearms" were taken away from the bodies and showed footage seemingly depicting an individual removing tactical gear {off a corpse