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Bruno Itan

An eyewitness who witnessed the aftermath of an extensive Brazilian police operation in the metropolitan area has recounted how local people brought back badly injured victims of the deceased individuals.

The casualties "kept piling up: 25, 30, 35, 40, 45...", the eyewitness described. They included those of police officers.

One of the bodies was discovered headless - others were "totally disfigured", he reported. Several bodies showed what he described as blade trauma.

Over 120 individuals lost their lives during the security action targeting an illegal organization - the deadliest such raid the municipality has seen.

The photographer explained that residents first notified him about the operation Tuesday morning by community members from the Alemão area, who contacted him telling him an armed confrontation was occurring.

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

The eyewitness reported that security forces blocked media personnel from entering the Penha neighborhood, where the security measures was under way.

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

Nevertheless, the eyewitness, who was raised in that neighborhood, explained he was able to make his way into the cordoned-off area, where he stayed until the next morning.

He described that Tuesday night, community members began to search the mountainous area which divides Penha from the adjacent Alemão area for family members who were unaccounted for following the security action.

Local people living in Penha arranged the located casualties in an open area - the documented evidence reveal the response of the gathered crowd.

"The brutality of it all impacted me profoundly: the pain of relatives, parents losing consciousness, expectant spouses, crying, furious relatives," the photographer recalled.

The eyewitness

The governor of the state announced that the large-scale security action with approximately 2,500 security personnel was designed to stopping an illegal organization known as the criminal faction from increasing their control.

Initially, the Rio state government maintained that sixty individuals along with four officers" were fatally injured in the raid.

They have since said that their "preliminary" count suggests that 117 alleged criminals have been killed.

The legal assistance organization, that gives legal support to the poor, has put the total number of casualties as 132.

Per investigative findings, the criminal organization is the only criminal group that in the past few years has succeeded to make territorial gains throughout Rio state.

Experts commonly view one of the two largest gangs nationally, together with another major gang, featuring a timeline extending half a century.

Per correspondent a specialist, who has been covering illegal operations in Rio extensively, Red Command "operates like a franchise" with area gang leaders joining the organization and becoming "operational allies".

The gang focuses mainly on drug trafficking, while also dealing in guns, precious metals, fuel, alcohol smoking products.

According to the authorities, organization members have substantial firearms and police said that throughout the operation, they faced assaults from explosive-laden drones.

The governor of the region, the government representative, labeled gang affiliates as criminal extremists and called the law enforcement personnel fatally injured in the action as "heroes".

However, the count of fatalities during the raid has faced scrutiny from UN human rights officials expressing they felt "shocked".

In a media appearance the following day, Governor Castro supported law enforcement.

"There was no objective to result in deaths. We aimed to detain everyone safely," he stated.

He continued that the events intensified because the suspects resisted aggressively: "It was a consequence of the counterattack they carried out and the overwhelming response by those criminals."

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

In a post on social media, he said that some of them had been taken of tactical gear which he claimed they wore "to redirect responsibility to security forces".

A law enforcement representative from the police department additionally stated that military attire, vests, and arms" had been removed from the victims and displayed evidence seemingly depicting a person stripping military attire {off a corpse