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Bruno Itan

An eyewitness who witnessed the consequences of a massive Brazilian police operation in the Brazilian city has described how local people brought back mutilated bodies of the deceased individuals.

The casualties "kept piling up: the numbers kept rising", Bruno Itan stated. Among them were security forces.

A particular victim was found without a head - while others appeared "completely mutilated", he reported. Many also had what he described as knife injuries.

Over 120 individuals were fatally injured in the Tuesday operation targeting an illegal organization - the most lethal operation in the city.

The photographer reported that he was first alerted concerning the action Tuesday morning by residents from the Alemão area, who reached out telling him gunfire had erupted.

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

Itan explained that security forces blocked media personnel from going into the affected area, where the operation were taking place.

"Law enforcement personnel established a perimeter and said: 'Media representatives are not allowed to pass'."

Nevertheless, the eyewitness, who was raised in that neighborhood, explained he succeeded to make his way into the cordoned-off area, where he stayed through the night.

He reported that evening, area inhabitants began to search the hillside which divides Penha from the adjacent Alemão area for family members whose whereabouts were unknown after the operation.

Community members from the Penha area arranged the discovered victims in an open area - the documented evidence reveal the reaction of the gathered crowd.

"The brutality of the situation affected me a lot: the sorrow of relatives, mothers fainting, women carrying children, sobbing, outraged parents," the reporter recounted.

The eyewitness

The state leader of the region declared that the extensive law enforcement effort involving around 2,500 officers was aimed at preventing an illegal organization referred to as the criminal faction from increasing their control.

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

Officials subsequently stated that early calculations shows that 117 individuals have been killed.

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

According to researchers, Red Command stands as the sole illegal faction that recently has succeeded to expand its territory across the region.

It is widely considered as a major illegal faction in the country, alongside First Capital Command, and has a history dating back more than 50 years.

Based on Brazilian journalist a specialist, with extensive experience documenting crime in Rio extensively, Red Command "functions as a network" with area gang leaders joining the organization and becoming "commercial associates".

The gang concentrates largely on drug trafficking, but also smuggles guns, valuable minerals, petroleum products, beverages and tobacco.

According to the authorities, organization members possess significant weaponry and officials reported that while the action was underway, they came under attack from explosive-laden drones.

The governor of the state, Cláudio Castro, characterized organization participants as drug terrorists and referred to the four police officers fatally injured in the action as "heroes".

But the number of fatalities in the security action has received condemnation from UN human rights officials expressing they felt "appalled".

At a news conference on Wednesday, the state leader defended the police force.

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

He further explained that the circumstances had escalated as the individuals resisted aggressively: "It was a consequence of the counterattack they executed and the overwhelming response by the illegal group."

The state leader additionally stated that the bodies displayed by locals in Penha had been "tampered with".

In a post on online platforms, he said that some of them had been stripped of military-style attire which he claimed they wore "in order to shift blame onto the police".

A law enforcement representative representing security forces further reported that military attire, protective equipment, and arms" were stripped from the bodies and displayed evidence apparently demonstrating a man stripping military attire {off a corpse