The bodies just kept coming - photographer recounts fatal Rio law enforcement operation

The eyewitness

A reporter who documented the aftermath of a massive Brazilian police operation in the Brazilian city has described how local people returned with badly injured victims of the deceased individuals.

The victims "continued arriving: the count kept increasing", the eyewitness reported. The total contained security forces.

One of the bodies was discovered headless - while others appeared "totally disfigured", he said. Several bodies showed what appeared to be blade trauma.

Over 120 individuals lost their lives during Tuesday's raid on a criminal gang - the deadliest such raid Rio has experienced.

The eyewitness explained that residents first notified him to the raid early on Tuesday by local people living in Alemão, who reached out informing him there was a shoot-out.

The photographer went to the Getúlio Vargas hospital, where the victims were being brought.

Itan explained that the police stopped members of the press from going into the Penha neighborhood, where the security measures were taking place.

"Law enforcement personnel created a barrier and declared: 'The press cannot proceed beyond this point'."

However, the photographer, who grew up in that neighborhood, explained he succeeded to gain access into the restricted zone, where he stayed through the night.

He explained that evening, community members began to search the mountainous area which divides the community of Penha and the nearby Alemão neighbourhood for loved ones whose whereabouts were unknown after the operation.

Community members of the Penha neighbourhood proceeded to place the discovered victims in a public space - and Itan's photos display the reaction of the gathered crowd.

"The violence of the situation shook me deeply: the pain of the families, women collapsing, women carrying children, weeping, outraged parents," the eyewitness remembered.

The eyewitness

The state leader of Rio state stated that the massive police operation with approximately 2,500 law enforcement members was aimed at halting a gang referred to as the criminal faction from growing their influence.

Originally, state authorities maintained that sixty individuals plus four law enforcement personnel" lost their lives in the raid.

Officials subsequently stated that early calculations shows that 117 individuals were fatally injured.

The legal assistance organization, that offers legal help to the poor, has put the final tally of people killed as 132.

Based on expert analysis, the gang is the only criminal group which in recent years has managed to expand its territory across the region.

Experts commonly view as a major illegal faction in the country, together with another major gang, and has a history dating back more than 50 years.

According to Brazilian journalist Rafael Soares, who has long reported on criminal activity in the city for years, the criminal organization "works as a system" with area gang leaders affiliating with the group and becoming "business partners".

The organization engages primarily in illegal drug trade, additionally trafficking firearms, precious metals, energy resources, beverages cigarettes.

Based on official reports, organization members possess significant weaponry and officials reported that during the raid, they encountered resistance via weaponized unmanned aircraft.

The official of the region, Cláudio Castro, described Red Command members as "narcoterrorists" and described the four police officers fatally injured in the action as courageous individuals.

However, the count of fatalities during the raid has faced scrutiny with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights stating they were "appalled".

In a media appearance the following day, the state leader justified security actions.

"There was no objective to result in deaths. We intended to arrest them all alive," he declared.

He added that the events worsened due to the alleged criminals resisted aggressively: "It resulted of the resistance they carried out and the overwhelming response by those criminals."

The state leader additionally stated that the casualties displayed by locals in the neighborhood had been "tampered with".

Via a statement on social media, he said that particular individuals had been taken of tactical gear he said they had been wearing "in order to shift blame to security forces".

A law enforcement representative of Rio's civil police force additionally stated that tactical gear, body armor, and weapons" had been removed from the victims and showed footage appearing to show a man stripping military attire {off a corpse