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Bruno Itan

An eyewitness who documented the consequences of a large-scale Brazilian police operation in Rio de Janeiro has recounted how residents brought back disfigured remains of the deceased individuals.

The victims "kept coming: the numbers kept rising", the eyewitness reported. The total contained law enforcement personnel.

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

Over 120 individuals lost their lives in the Tuesday operation against a criminal group - the most lethal operation in the city.

The photographer explained that he was first alerted concerning the action early on Tuesday by local people of the Alemão neighbourhood, who sent him messages informing him gunfire had erupted.

The photographer made his way to the Getúlio Vargas hospital, where the casualties were being brought.

The photographer stated that the police stopped members of the press from going into the operation zone, where the operation were occurring.

"Security forces established a perimeter and said: 'Journalists cannot proceed beyond this point'."

Nevertheless, the eyewitness, who spent his childhood in the community, explained he managed to gain access past the security perimeter, where he remained until the next morning.

He reported during the night, area inhabitants started looking the hillside that borders the Penha neighborhood from the neighboring Alemão community for loved ones who had been missing after the operation.

Local people living in Penha organized the discovered victims in a square - the documented evidence display the response of the gathered crowd.

"The violence of it all impacted me deeply: the grief of relatives, mothers fainting, pregnant wives, sobbing, furious relatives," the reporter recounted.

The eyewitness

The state leader of the region announced that the large-scale security action deploying about 2,500 security personnel was intended to preventing a criminal group called the criminal faction from growing their influence.

At first, state authorities claimed that sixty alleged criminals along with four officers" had been killed in the raid.

Authorities later reported that early calculations suggests that 117 "suspects" lost their lives.

The legal assistance organization, that offers legal help to the poor, has estimated the final tally of casualties at 132.

Based on expert analysis, the criminal organization is the only criminal group which in recent years has managed to increase its control in the state of Rio de Janeiro.

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

Based on correspondent a specialist, who has long reported on crime in Rio extensively, Red Command "operates like a franchise" with local criminal leaders affiliating with the group and becoming "business partners".

The gang concentrates largely on illegal drug trade, while also dealing in firearms, precious metals, energy resources, liquor smoking products.

Per law enforcement statements, gang members possess significant weaponry and police said that during the raid, they came under attack from explosive-laden drones.

The governor of the region, the political leader, described gang affiliates as drug terrorists and described the law enforcement personnel killed in the raid as courageous individuals.

Nevertheless, the total of people killed during the raid has come in for criticism from international human rights authorities expressing they felt "horrified".

During a press briefing the following day, Governor Castro supported law enforcement.

"There was no objective to result in deaths. We intended to take suspects into custody without harm," he stated.

He continued that the events had escalated due to the alleged criminals resisted aggressively: "It was a consequence of the counterattack they executed and the overwhelming response by those criminals."

The state leader additionally stated that the bodies presented by community members in the neighborhood were "altered".

Through a message on online platforms, he claimed that certain victims had been taken of the camouflage clothing that he stated they possessed "in order to shift blame onto the police".

Felipe Curi representing security forces also said that military attire, vests, and arms" were taken away from the bodies and presented video appearing to show a man removing tactical gear {off a corpse