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The photographer

A photographer who witnessed the results of a massive Brazilian police operation in the metropolitan area has described how local people brought back disfigured remains of those who had died.

The bodies "kept coming: the numbers kept rising", the photographer reported. Among them were those of police officers.

One of the bodies was discovered headless - while others appeared "totally disfigured", he explained. Several bodies showed what he described as stab wounds.

More than 120 people were fatally injured during Tuesday's raid on a criminal gang - the most lethal operation Rio has experienced.

The eyewitness explained that he was first alerted concerning the action early on Tuesday by local people from the Alemão area, who sent him messages alerting him gunfire had erupted.

The eyewitness went to the healthcare center, where the bodies were being brought.

Itan explained that law enforcement stopped members of the press from going into the Penha neighborhood, where the operation were taking place.

"Police officers formed a line and declared: 'Media representatives are not allowed to pass'."

However, the photographer, who spent his childhood in that neighborhood, reported he managed to gain access into the restricted zone, where he stayed until dawn.

He reported that Tuesday night, local residents began to search the hillside which divides the Penha neighborhood from the neighboring Alemão community for loved ones who had been missing following the security action.

Residents living in Penha proceeded to place the recovered bodies in a public space - the photographer's images reveal the emotions of the gathered crowd.

"The brutality of it all shook me deeply: the sorrow of relatives, parents losing consciousness, expectant spouses, sobbing, furious relatives," the eyewitness remembered.

Bruno Itan

The official of Rio state stated that the extensive law enforcement effort involving around 2,500 security personnel was intended to halting a criminal group known as the criminal faction from growing their influence.

At first, local officials maintained that sixty individuals and four police officers" were fatally injured during the action.

Officials subsequently stated that their "preliminary" count shows that 117 individuals have been killed.

Rio's public defender's office, that gives legal support to low-income residents, has put the final tally of casualties at 132.

According to researchers, the gang is the only criminal group which in recent years has managed to make territorial gains throughout Rio state.

It is generally regarded as a major illegal faction in the country, alongside another major gang, featuring a timeline extending half a century.

Per correspondent a specialist, who has long reported on criminal activity in the city extensively, Red Command "works as a system" with area gang leaders affiliating with the group and becoming "operational allies".

The organization focuses mainly on drug trafficking, while also dealing in guns, precious metals, fuel, alcohol and tobacco.

Per law enforcement statements, gang members are well armed and officials reported that during the raid, they encountered resistance via weaponized unmanned aircraft.

The governor of the state, the political leader, labeled gang affiliates as drug terrorists and called the security forces fatally injured in the action as "heroes".

Nevertheless, the total of casualties in the operation has come in for criticism from international human rights authorities expressing they felt "appalled".

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

"We did not plan to result in deaths. We intended to arrest them all alive," he said.

He continued that the situation intensified as the individuals fought back: "It resulted of the counterattack they implemented and the disproportionate use of force by the illegal group."

The state leader also said that the bodies presented by community members in the area had been "manipulated".

Through a message through digital channels, he claimed that certain victims had been removed of military-style attire he said they had been wearing "to redirect responsibility onto the police".

A police official representing security forces also said that military attire, protective equipment, and weapons" were stripped from the bodies and showed footage appearing to show a man removing tactical gear {off a corpse