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The eyewitness

An eyewitness who witnessed the results of a large-scale law enforcement action in the metropolitan area has reported how local people brought back badly injured victims of people who lost their lives.

The victims "kept piling up: the numbers kept rising", the photographer described. Among them were those of police officers.

A particular victim was found without a head - while others appeared "totally disfigured", he reported. Numerous victims displayed what appeared to be blade trauma.

More than 120 people were fatally injured during Tuesday's raid against a criminal group - the bloodiest action Rio has experienced.

The eyewitness reported that residents first notified him about the operation in the early hours by community members living in Alemão, who contacted him alerting him there was a shoot-out.

The photographer went to the healthcare center, where the victims were arriving.

Itan explained that security forces blocked media personnel from going into the affected area, where the security measures were occurring.

"Security forces formed a line and announced: 'Media representatives doesn't get past here'."

Nevertheless, the eyewitness, who spent his childhood in that neighborhood, reported he was able to gain access into the restricted zone, where he stayed until the next morning.

He reported that Tuesday night, area inhabitants started looking the hillside which divides the community of Penha and the neighboring Alemão community for relatives who had been missing since the police raid.

Residents living in Penha arranged the recovered bodies in a public space - the photographer's images show the emotions of the gathered crowd.

"The violence of it all shook me deeply: the grief of relatives, mothers fainting, pregnant wives, sobbing, outraged parents," the reporter recounted.

The eyewitness

The official of the region stated that the large-scale security action deploying about 2,500 security personnel was intended to halting a criminal group referred to as the criminal faction from increasing their control.

Initially, local officials claimed that sixty individuals and four police officers" lost their lives during the action.

They have since said that early calculations indicates that 117 individuals were fatally injured.

Rio's public defender's office, which provides legal assistance to the poor, has estimated the total number of people killed at 132.

Based on expert analysis, the gang stands as the sole illegal faction that recently has been able to make territorial gains in the state of Rio de Janeiro.

Experts commonly view among the biggest criminal organizations in the country, alongside a rival criminal group, and has a history spanning over five decades.

According to reporter Rafael Soares, who has long reported on crime in Rio over many years, the criminal organization "works as a system" with local criminal leaders forming part of the gang and acting as "business partners".

The gang concentrates largely on drug trafficking, additionally trafficking firearms, valuable minerals, fuel, liquor and tobacco.

Based on official reports, gang members have substantial firearms and police said that throughout the operation, they faced assaults via weaponized unmanned aircraft.

The state leader of the state, Cláudio Castro, characterized gang affiliates as criminal extremists and called the law enforcement personnel fatally injured in the action as "heroes".

Nevertheless, the total of fatalities during the raid has come in for criticism with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights stating they were "horrified".

In a media appearance the following day, Governor Castro defended the police force.

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

He continued that the situation had escalated because the suspects had retaliated: "It resulted of the resistance they carried out and the overwhelming response from the gang members."

The official also said that the bodies presented by community members in the area had been "tampered with".

Through a message on online platforms, he asserted that some of them had been removed of the camouflage clothing that he stated they possessed "in order to shift blame toward law enforcement".

Felipe Curi representing security forces also said that military attire, protective equipment, and firearms" were taken away from the casualties and displayed evidence appearing to show a person stripping military attire {off a corpse