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Bruno Itan

A reporter who witnessed the consequences of a massive security raid in Rio de Janeiro has recounted how residents brought back badly injured victims of people who lost their lives.

The victims "kept coming: the count kept increasing", the eyewitness described. They included security forces.

A particular victim was discovered headless - others were "totally disfigured", he said. Numerous victims displayed what he described as stab wounds.

Over 120 individuals lost their lives during the security action against a criminal group - the most lethal operation the municipality has seen.

The photographer stated that residents first notified him concerning the action Tuesday morning by local people from the Alemão area, who contacted him informing him gunfire had erupted.

The photographer traveled to a local medical facility, where the bodies were arriving.

The photographer stated that security forces blocked media personnel from accessing the affected area, where the police action was under way.

"Law enforcement personnel formed a line and said: 'The press doesn't get past here'."

However, the photographer, who spent his childhood in that neighborhood, reported he was able to gain access past the security perimeter, where he stayed until the next morning.

He explained that evening, community members commenced searching the elevated terrain that separates the Penha neighborhood from the adjacent Alemão area for loved ones who were unaccounted for since the police raid.

Community members of the Penha neighbourhood proceeded to place the discovered victims in a public space - the photographer's images show the response of those present.

"The brutality of the situation affected me a lot: the pain of relatives, mothers fainting, pregnant wives, weeping, angry family members," the reporter recounted.

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The governor of the region announced that the massive police operation involving around 2,500 officers was designed to stopping an illegal organization referred to as Comando Vermelho from growing their influence.

Originally, local officials claimed that sixty alleged criminals plus four law enforcement personnel" lost their lives in the raid.

Officials subsequently stated that early calculations indicates that 117 alleged criminals have been killed.

The public legal service, which provides legal assistance to the poor, has estimated the total number of people killed as 132.

Based on expert analysis, Red Command stands as the sole illegal faction that in the past few years has managed to make territorial gains throughout Rio state.

Experts commonly view among the biggest criminal organizations in Brazil, in company with a rival criminal group, featuring a timeline extending half a century.

Per correspondent Rafael Soares, with extensive experience documenting illegal operations in Rio over many years, Red Command "works as a system" with neighborhood bosses affiliating with the group and becoming "operational allies".

The organization concentrates largely on illegal drug trade, but also smuggles weapons, precious metals, fuel, alcohol and tobacco.

According to the authorities, gang members have substantial firearms and police said that while the action was underway, they encountered resistance from explosive-laden drones.

The official of Rio state, Cláudio Castro, characterized organization participants as "narcoterrorists" and called the four police officers fatally injured in the action as "heroes".

However, the count of fatalities in the security action has received condemnation from UN human rights officials saying it was "appalled".

During a press briefing the next day, the state leader defended the police force.

"There was no objective to result in deaths. We aimed to arrest them all alive," he stated.

He continued that the situation had escalated due to the alleged criminals had retaliated: "It resulted of the counterattack they carried out and the excessive violence by the illegal group."

The state leader further reported that the bodies displayed by locals in the neighborhood were "altered".

In a post on online platforms, he asserted that certain victims had been taken of military-style attire he said they had been wearing "to transfer accusation onto the police".

A police official from the police department further reported that "camouflage clothing, body armor, and arms" had been removed from the casualties and showed footage seemingly depicting a man cutting camouflage clothing {off a corpse