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The photographer

An eyewitness who documented the consequences of a massive Brazilian police operation in Rio de Janeiro has described how residents returned with badly injured victims of people who lost their lives.

The victims "kept piling up: the numbers kept rising", the eyewitness reported. The total contained those of police officers.

One of the bodies was discovered headless - while others appeared "completely mutilated", he said. Numerous victims displayed what appeared to be knife injuries.

In excess of 120 victims lost their lives in the Tuesday operation on a criminal gang - the deadliest such raid in the city.

The photographer stated that he initially learned concerning the action in the early hours by local people of the Alemão neighbourhood, who contacted him alerting him an armed confrontation was occurring.

The eyewitness traveled to a local medical facility, where the casualties were being brought.

Itan explained that the police prevented journalists from going into the Penha neighborhood, where the police action were taking place.

"Security forces created a barrier and announced: 'The press are not allowed to pass'."

Nevertheless, the eyewitness, who spent his childhood in the area, explained he succeeded to enter into the restricted zone, where he continued until the next morning.

He explained that Tuesday night, community members began to search the hillside that separates Penha from the neighboring Alemão community for relatives who were unaccounted for following the security action.

Local people of the Penha neighbourhood arranged the recovered bodies in an open area - the photographer's images display the response of the people there.

"The brutality of it all impacted me profoundly: the grief of loved ones, parents losing consciousness, expectant spouses, crying, furious relatives," the reporter recounted.

Bruno Itan

The state leader of the state declared that the large-scale security action deploying about 2,500 officers was designed to halting a criminal group called Comando Vermelho from expanding its territory.

Originally, state authorities claimed that sixty alleged criminals and four police officers" were fatally injured during the action.

They have since said that their "preliminary" count suggests that 117 "suspects" have been killed.

The legal assistance organization, that offers legal help to the poor, has put the total number of people killed to be 132.

Per investigative findings, the gang is the only criminal group that in the past few years has managed to expand its territory throughout Rio state.

It is widely considered as a major illegal faction in Brazil, together with First Capital Command, with a background dating back more than 50 years.

Per correspondent a specialist, who has been covering illegal operations in Rio over many years, the gang "functions as a network" with local criminal leaders affiliating with the group and becoming "business partners".

The gang engages primarily in narcotics distribution, while also dealing in guns, precious metals, energy resources, liquor and tobacco.

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

The official of the region, Cláudio Castro, described organization participants as drug terrorists and referred to the four police officers fatally injured in the action as brave public servants.

However, the count of casualties in the operation has faced scrutiny from international human rights authorities saying it was "horrified".

In a media appearance on Wednesday, the state leader supported law enforcement.

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

He added that the events worsened due to the alleged criminals fought back: "It was a consequence of the resistance they implemented and the excessive violence from the gang members."

The governor further reported that the casualties shown by residents in Penha were "altered".

In a post on social media, he claimed that some of them had been stripped of military-style attire he said they had been wearing "to redirect responsibility onto the police".

A police official from the police department also said that tactical gear, protective equipment, and arms" were taken away from the victims and showed footage apparently demonstrating an individual stripping military attire {off a corpse