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The eyewitness

A reporter who observed the results of a large-scale security raid in the Brazilian city has described how community members returned with disfigured remains of those who had died.

The victims "kept coming: 25, 30, 35, 40, 45...", Bruno Itan stated. The total contained those of police officers.

One of the bodies had been decapitated - others were "completely mutilated", he reported. Numerous victims displayed what appeared to be blade trauma.

In excess of 120 victims lost their lives during the security action on a criminal gang - the bloodiest action the municipality has seen.

Bruno Itan explained that he was first alerted to the raid Tuesday morning by local people from the Alemão area, who sent him messages alerting him there was a shoot-out.

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

The eyewitness reported that security forces blocked media personnel from going into the affected area, where the operation was under way.

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

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

He described during the night, community members started looking the elevated terrain that borders the Penha neighborhood from the neighboring Alemão community for family members who had been missing since the police raid.

Community members of the Penha neighbourhood organized the recovered bodies in a public space - the documented evidence show the emotions of the gathered crowd.

"The violence of the situation impacted me profoundly: the sorrow of loved ones, parents losing consciousness, pregnant wives, weeping, outraged parents," the eyewitness remembered.

The photographer

The state leader of the region declared that the large-scale security action with approximately 2,500 law enforcement members was intended to preventing a criminal group referred to as the criminal faction from increasing their control.

Originally, local officials maintained that sixty alleged criminals along with four officers" had been killed in the operation.

Officials subsequently stated that their "preliminary" count shows that 117 alleged criminals lost their lives.

The public legal service, that offers legal help to the poor, has estimated the total number of people killed to be 132.

According to researchers, the gang represents the unique criminal entity that in the past few years has managed to increase its control in the state of Rio de Janeiro.

Experts commonly view as a major illegal faction in Brazil, in company with another major gang, and has a history spanning over five decades.

Per correspondent a specialist, who has long reported on crime in Rio for years, the criminal organization "works as a system" with neighborhood bosses forming part of the gang and acting as "operational allies".

The organization engages primarily in illegal drug trade, additionally trafficking weapons, precious metals, energy resources, liquor cigarettes.

Based on official reports, organization members have substantial firearms and police said that throughout the operation, they came under attack via weaponized unmanned aircraft.

The governor of the state, Cláudio Castro, labeled Red Command members as criminal extremists and referred to the four police officers killed in the raid as brave public servants.

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

During a press briefing the next day, the official justified security actions.

"There was no objective to result in deaths. We intended to detain everyone safely," he said.

He continued that the circumstances worsened due to the alleged criminals resisted aggressively: "It resulted of the resistance they executed and the disproportionate use of force by the illegal group."

The state leader also said that the casualties displayed by locals in the neighborhood were "altered".

In a post on online platforms, he said that some of them had been removed of tactical gear which he claimed they wore "to redirect responsibility toward law enforcement".

A law enforcement representative from the police department additionally stated that tactical gear, protective equipment, and arms" were taken away from the victims and presented video seemingly depicting an individual stripping military attire {off a corpse