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The eyewitness

A reporter who documented the consequences of a large-scale security raid in the Brazilian city has recounted how residents returned with badly injured victims of those who had died.

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

One of the bodies had been decapitated - others were "completely mutilated", he said. Numerous victims displayed what he described as blade trauma.

Over 120 individuals were fatally injured during Tuesday's raid on a criminal gang - the deadliest such raid Rio has experienced.

Bruno Itan stated that he was first alerted concerning the action early on Tuesday by community members from the Alemão area, who reached out telling him gunfire had erupted.

The photographer went to a local medical facility, where the victims were being brought.

Itan explained that security forces prevented journalists from entering the affected area, where the security measures were taking place.

"Police officers formed a line and declared: 'Journalists are not allowed to pass'."

But Itan, who was raised in that neighborhood, explained he succeeded to enter into the cordoned-off area, where he continued until the next morning.

He described that Tuesday night, community members commenced searching the hillside that separates the Penha neighborhood from the nearby Alemão neighbourhood for relatives whose whereabouts were unknown after the operation.

Local people from the Penha area arranged the discovered victims in a public space - the photographer's images display the response of those present.

"The brutality of it all impacted me profoundly: the sorrow of loved ones, parents losing consciousness, women carrying children, weeping, outraged parents," the photographer recalled.

The eyewitness

The state leader of the state stated that the large-scale security action deploying about 2,500 law enforcement members was designed to stopping a gang known as the criminal faction from expanding its territory.

At first, the Rio state government maintained that "60 suspects along with four officers" lost their lives during the action.

They have since said that early calculations shows that 117 "suspects" have been killed.

Rio's public defender's office, that offers legal help to disadvantaged individuals, has calculated the final tally of fatalities to be 132.

Based on expert analysis, the gang is the only criminal group that recently has succeeded to make territorial gains in the state of Rio de Janeiro.

It is generally regarded one of the two largest gangs nationally, alongside First Capital Command, featuring a timeline dating back more than 50 years.

Based on correspondent Rafael Soares, who has long reported on criminal activity in the city over many years, the criminal organization "works as a system" with neighborhood bosses affiliating with the group and becoming "operational allies".

The criminal group focuses mainly on narcotics distribution, additionally trafficking weapons, valuable minerals, fuel, beverages cigarettes.

According to the authorities, gang members possess significant weaponry and police said that throughout the operation, they faced assaults via weaponized unmanned aircraft.

The official of the state, the government representative, characterized organization participants as "narcoterrorists" and described the four police officers who died during the operation as brave public servants.

Nevertheless, the total of people killed in the operation has received condemnation from international human rights authorities stating they were "shocked".

In a media appearance on Wednesday, Governor Castro supported law enforcement.

"There was no objective to kill anyone. We wanted to take suspects into custody without harm," he declared.

He continued that the circumstances had escalated due to the alleged criminals resisted aggressively: "It occurred of the resistance they executed and the overwhelming response by the illegal group."

The state leader also said that the victims shown by residents in Penha had been "manipulated".

Through a message on social media, he claimed that some of them had been removed of the camouflage clothing that he stated they possessed "to redirect responsibility onto the police".

A law enforcement representative from the police department also said that tactical gear, body armor, and weapons" had been removed from the bodies and displayed evidence apparently demonstrating a person removing tactical gear {off a corpse