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Bruno Itan

A photographer who documented the consequences of a massive security raid in Rio de Janeiro has reported how community members returned with badly injured victims of people who lost their lives.

The bodies "continued arriving: the count kept increasing", Bruno Itan described. Among them were security forces.

One of the bodies was discovered headless - others were "totally disfigured", he said. Numerous victims displayed evidence of stab wounds.

In excess of 120 victims were fatally injured in the Tuesday operation targeting an illegal organization - the bloodiest action the municipality has seen.

The eyewitness stated that he initially learned to the raid Tuesday morning by community members of the Alemão neighbourhood, who contacted him telling him there was a shoot-out.

The reporter made his way to the healthcare center, where the victims were being brought.

The eyewitness reported that security forces stopped members of the press from accessing the operation zone, where the operation were taking place.

"Law enforcement personnel formed a line and announced: 'Journalists doesn't get past here'."

But Itan, who spent his childhood in that neighborhood, explained he succeeded to enter into the restricted zone, where he continued until dawn.

He described that evening, local residents started looking the hillside that separates Penha from the neighboring Alemão community for relatives who had been missing after the operation.

Local people living in Penha arranged the recovered bodies in a square - the photographer's images show the reaction of the gathered crowd.

"The violence of what occurred affected me a lot: the pain of loved ones, women collapsing, pregnant wives, sobbing, outraged parents," the reporter recounted.

Bruno Itan

The official of the state stated that the large-scale security action deploying about 2,500 security personnel was intended to preventing a gang referred to as the criminal faction from expanding its territory.

Originally, local officials stated that sixty alleged criminals and four police officers" were fatally injured in the raid.

Officials subsequently stated that their "preliminary" count shows that 117 individuals were fatally injured.

Rio's public defender's office, that offers legal help to the poor, has estimated the total number of fatalities to be 132.

According to researchers, the criminal organization represents the unique criminal entity that in the past few years has managed to make territorial gains in the state of Rio de Janeiro.

Experts commonly view as a major illegal faction in the country, alongside First Capital Command, and has a history spanning over five decades.

Based on correspondent a specialist, who has long reported on criminal activity in the city extensively, the gang "operates like a franchise" with local criminal leaders joining the organization and serving as "commercial associates".

The criminal group focuses mainly on drug trafficking, while also dealing in guns, valuable minerals, petroleum products, beverages smoking products.

Per law enforcement statements, organization members possess significant weaponry and authorities stated that while the action was underway, they faced assaults via weaponized unmanned aircraft.

The official of the region, Cláudio Castro, labeled Red Command members as criminal extremists and described the four police officers fatally injured in the action as "heroes".

Nevertheless, the total of casualties in the operation has faced scrutiny from UN human rights officials saying it was "horrified".

In a media appearance the following day, the official defended the police force.

"We did not plan to cause fatalities. We aimed to detain everyone safely," he stated.

He added that the situation had escalated as the individuals resisted aggressively: "It resulted of the retaliation they carried out and the disproportionate use of force by the illegal group."

The state leader also said that the bodies displayed by locals in the neighborhood had been "tampered with".

Via a statement on online platforms, he said that certain victims had been taken of the camouflage clothing that he stated they possessed "to transfer accusation 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 showed footage apparently demonstrating an individual cutting camouflage clothing {off a corpse