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The eyewitness

A reporter who witnessed the aftermath of a massive Brazilian police operation in Rio de Janeiro has described how residents returned with mutilated bodies of people who lost their lives.

The casualties "kept coming: 25, 30, 35, 40, 45...", Bruno Itan described. They included security forces.

One of the bodies had been decapitated - additional victims were "totally disfigured", he said. Numerous victims displayed evidence of stab wounds.

More than 120 people were killed in the Tuesday operation targeting an illegal organization - the bloodiest action Rio has experienced.

Bruno Itan stated that he initially learned to the raid in the early hours by community members from the Alemão area, who sent him messages telling him there was a shoot-out.

The photographer traveled to a local medical facility, where the victims were being brought.

The eyewitness reported that the police stopped members of the press from going into the Penha neighborhood, where the security measures was under way.

"Law enforcement personnel established a perimeter and said: 'The press cannot proceed beyond this point'."

However, the photographer, who was raised in the area, explained he managed to gain access into the restricted zone, where he remained until dawn.

He reported that evening, local residents commenced searching the hillside which divides the community of Penha and the adjacent Alemão area for loved ones who had been missing after the operation.

Local people from the Penha area organized the located casualties in an open area - the documented evidence show the reaction of the people there.

"The violence of what occurred impacted me deeply: the sorrow of relatives, mothers fainting, women carrying children, weeping, furious relatives," the photographer recalled.

Bruno Itan

The state leader of the region declared that the extensive law enforcement effort deploying about 2,500 security personnel was intended to stopping an illegal organization known as Comando Vermelho from expanding its territory.

Initially, the Rio state government stated that sixty individuals plus four law enforcement personnel" lost their lives in the raid.

Authorities later reported that initial estimates shows that 117 "suspects" have been killed.

The legal assistance organization, which provides legal assistance to disadvantaged individuals, has estimated the final tally of fatalities at 132.

Based on expert analysis, the criminal organization is the only criminal group which in recent years has been able to make territorial gains across the region.

It is generally regarded one of the two largest gangs in Brazil, together with a rival criminal group, featuring a timeline extending half a century.

According to reporter Rafael Soares, who has long reported on crime in Rio extensively, the gang "functions as a network" with area gang leaders joining the organization and serving as "business partners".

The organization concentrates largely on illegal drug trade, but also smuggles guns, gold, fuel, liquor cigarettes.

According to the authorities, organization members are well armed and police said that during the raid, they faced assaults via weaponized unmanned aircraft.

The state leader of Rio state, the government representative, characterized gang affiliates as "narcoterrorists" and described the security forces fatally injured in the action as courageous individuals.

However, the count of people killed in the security action has come in for criticism from UN human rights officials stating they were "horrified".

At a news conference on Wednesday, the official defended the police force.

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

He further explained that the situation had escalated because the suspects had retaliated: "It resulted of the resistance they carried out and the overwhelming response by the illegal group."

The official further reported that the victims presented by community members in the area had been "manipulated".

Via a statement through digital channels, he said that particular individuals had been stripped of the camouflage clothing which he claimed they wore "in order to shift blame to security forces".

Felipe Curi representing security forces further reported that tactical gear, protective equipment, and weapons" were stripped from the bodies and showed footage seemingly depicting an individual stripping military attire {off a corpse