The casualties continued piling up - reporter shares fatal Rio law enforcement operation

The photographer

A reporter who documented the results of a large-scale law enforcement action in Rio de Janeiro has recounted how local people returned with mutilated bodies of people who lost their lives.

The casualties "kept coming: the numbers kept rising", Bruno Itan reported. Among them were those of police officers.

One individual was discovered headless - while others appeared "completely mutilated", he said. Several bodies showed evidence of stab wounds.

More than 120 people were fatally injured in the Tuesday operation on a criminal gang - the bloodiest action in the city.

The photographer stated that he was first alerted concerning the action early on Tuesday by residents from the Alemão area, who sent him messages telling him an armed confrontation was occurring.

The eyewitness traveled to the healthcare center, where the bodies were coming in.

Itan explained that the police prevented journalists from accessing the operation zone, where the security measures were taking place.

"Law enforcement personnel created a barrier and said: 'Journalists are not allowed to pass'."

But Itan, who grew up in that neighborhood, stated he managed to make his way into the cordoned-off area, where he continued until dawn.

He reported that Tuesday night, area inhabitants began to search the elevated terrain which divides the community of Penha and the neighboring Alemão community for loved ones who were unaccounted for after the operation.

Residents from the Penha area arranged the located casualties in a public space - the documented evidence show the response of the people there.

"The harsh reality of it all shook me a lot: the sorrow of relatives, mothers fainting, women carrying children, crying, angry family members," the eyewitness remembered.

The eyewitness

The official of the region declared that the massive police operation with approximately 2,500 law enforcement members was designed to preventing an illegal organization referred to as Red Command from expanding its territory.

At first, state authorities maintained that sixty individuals along with four officers" had been killed in the raid.

Authorities later reported that their "preliminary" count suggests that 117 alleged criminals have been killed.

The public legal service, that gives legal support to low-income residents, has calculated the overall count of fatalities at 132.

According to researchers, Red Command is the only criminal group that recently has managed to increase its control across the region.

It is generally regarded among the biggest criminal organizations in Brazil, in company with a rival criminal group, featuring a timeline spanning over five decades.

Per reporter Rafael Soares, who has long reported on illegal operations in Rio over many years, the gang "works as a system" with neighborhood bosses joining the organization and becoming "operational allies".

The criminal group engages primarily in narcotics distribution, while also dealing in weapons, gold, energy resources, beverages smoking products.

Based on official reports, criminal affiliates are well armed and authorities stated that during the raid, they faced assaults using drone-delivered explosives.

The governor of Rio state, the political leader, characterized organization participants as criminal extremists and called the four police officers fatally injured in the action as courageous individuals.

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

During a press briefing on Wednesday, the state leader supported law enforcement.

"We did not plan to result in deaths. We intended to take suspects into custody without harm," he stated.

He added that the situation intensified due to the alleged criminals had retaliated: "It was a consequence of the resistance they carried out and the excessive violence from the gang members."

The official additionally stated that the bodies displayed by locals in the area had been "manipulated".

Through a message through digital channels, he claimed that some of them had been taken of tactical gear that he stated they possessed "to redirect responsibility to security forces".

Felipe Curi of Rio's civil police force further reported that military attire, vests, and firearms" had been removed from the casualties and displayed evidence apparently demonstrating an individual stripping military attire {off a corpse