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The eyewitness

An eyewitness who documented the results of a large-scale law enforcement action in the metropolitan area has reported how residents brought back mutilated bodies of those who had died.

The bodies "kept coming: the numbers kept rising", the eyewitness stated. The total contained those of police officers.

One of the bodies had been decapitated - while others appeared "severely damaged", he said. Numerous victims displayed what appeared to be stab wounds.

More than 120 people lost their lives during Tuesday's raid targeting an illegal organization - the deadliest such raid Rio has experienced.

The photographer stated that he initially learned about the operation early on Tuesday by local people of the Alemão neighbourhood, who reached out informing him gunfire had erupted.

The eyewitness made his way to the Getúlio Vargas hospital, where the bodies were coming in.

The photographer stated that security forces prevented journalists from accessing the affected area, where the police action were occurring.

"Police officers formed a line and declared: 'Journalists doesn't get past here'."

However, the photographer, who spent his childhood in the community, reported he succeeded to gain access into the restricted zone, where he remained through the night.

He reported during the night, area inhabitants commenced searching the elevated terrain that separates the community of Penha and the adjacent Alemão area for relatives who had been missing since the police raid.

Community members of the Penha neighbourhood organized the located casualties in an open area - the documented evidence reveal the reaction of those present.

"The brutality of it all affected me deeply: the pain of loved ones, women collapsing, women carrying children, crying, angry family members," the eyewitness remembered.

The eyewitness

The governor of the state declared that the extensive law enforcement effort deploying about 2,500 security personnel was intended to stopping a gang referred to as Red Command from growing their influence.

At first, local officials maintained that "60 suspects along with four officers" lost their lives during the action.

They have since said that initial estimates suggests that 117 alleged criminals were fatally injured.

The legal assistance organization, which provides legal assistance to the poor, has put the total number of fatalities as 132.

Per investigative findings, Red Command is the only criminal group that in the past few years has managed to make territorial gains across the region.

It is widely considered among the biggest criminal organizations nationally, together with a rival criminal group, with a background extending half a century.

Per Brazilian journalist a specialist, with extensive experience documenting crime in Rio for years, the gang "operates like a franchise" with neighborhood bosses affiliating with the group and acting as "commercial associates".

The criminal group engages primarily in narcotics distribution, but also smuggles weapons, valuable minerals, energy resources, alcohol and tobacco.

Based on official reports, criminal affiliates are well armed and authorities stated that throughout the operation, they encountered resistance from explosive-laden drones.

The state leader of the state, Cláudio Castro, labeled gang affiliates as "narcoterrorists" and described the law enforcement personnel fatally injured in the action as brave public servants.

But the number of casualties in the operation has received condemnation with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights stating they were "horrified".

At a news conference the next day, the official defended the police force.

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

He further explained that the events had escalated because the suspects resisted aggressively: "It resulted of the counterattack they executed and the disproportionate use of force by those criminals."

The governor also said that the bodies displayed by locals in the neighborhood had been "manipulated".

Through a message through digital channels, he asserted that certain victims had been stripped of the camouflage clothing he said they had been wearing "in order to shift blame to security forces".

A law enforcement representative representing security forces also said that "camouflage clothing, protective equipment, and firearms" were taken away from the victims and showed footage appearing to show a person stripping military attire {off a corpse