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The photographer

A photographer who witnessed the results of a large-scale Brazilian police operation in the metropolitan area has described how local people came back with mutilated bodies of people who lost their lives.

The casualties "kept coming: 25, 30, 35, 40, 45...", the eyewitness reported. The total contained security forces.

A particular victim was found without a head - additional victims were "completely mutilated", he reported. Many also had what he described as stab wounds.

More than 120 people were fatally injured during the security action on a criminal gang - the deadliest such raid in the city.

The eyewitness reported that he initially learned to the raid early on Tuesday by community members of the Alemão neighbourhood, who reached out alerting him there was a shoot-out.

The eyewitness went to the Getúlio Vargas hospital, where the casualties were being brought.

The photographer stated that the police prevented journalists from going into the affected area, where the operation were taking place.

"Law enforcement personnel formed a line and said: 'The press cannot proceed beyond this point'."

But Itan, who grew up in the community, stated he succeeded to enter past the security perimeter, where he continued until the next morning.

He explained that evening, community members started looking the hillside that separates Penha from the neighboring Alemão community for family members whose whereabouts were unknown since the police raid.

Residents from the Penha area organized the recovered bodies in a public space - the documented evidence display the emotions of the gathered crowd.

"The violence of the situation shook me profoundly: the pain of loved ones, parents losing consciousness, expectant spouses, sobbing, furious relatives," the photographer recalled.

Bruno Itan

The official of the state announced that the large-scale security action involving around 2,500 security personnel was designed to halting a gang called the criminal faction from increasing their control.

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

Authorities later reported that initial estimates shows that 117 individuals have been killed.

Rio's public defender's office, which provides legal assistance to low-income residents, has estimated the overall count of people killed as 132.

According to researchers, the criminal organization is the only criminal group that recently has succeeded to make territorial gains across the region.

It is widely considered among the biggest criminal organizations in the country, in company with a rival criminal group, and has a history spanning over five decades.

Based on correspondent a specialist, who has been covering illegal operations in Rio for years, the gang "operates like a franchise" with neighborhood bosses affiliating with the group and becoming "business partners".

The criminal group focuses mainly on narcotics distribution, additionally trafficking guns, precious metals, petroleum products, liquor and tobacco.

Per law enforcement statements, organization members have substantial firearms and police said that during the raid, they came under attack via weaponized unmanned aircraft.

The governor of the region, Cláudio Castro, described organization participants as drug terrorists and called the law enforcement personnel fatally injured in the action as brave public servants.

But the number of casualties in the security action has come in for criticism from international human rights authorities saying it was "shocked".

At a news conference the next day, Governor Castro justified security actions.

"There was no objective to cause fatalities. We intended to detain everyone safely," he declared.

He added that the situation worsened because the suspects resisted aggressively: "It was a consequence of the counterattack they carried out and the excessive violence by those criminals."

The official further reported that the bodies displayed by locals in the area were "altered".

In a post on social media, he claimed that some of them had been stripped of tactical gear that he stated they possessed "to transfer accusation to security forces".

Felipe Curi representing security forces further reported that "camouflage clothing, body armor, and arms" had been removed from the casualties and displayed evidence appearing to show an individual cutting camouflage clothing {off a corpse