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The eyewitness

A reporter who documented the consequences of a large-scale law enforcement action in the metropolitan area has reported how residents came back with disfigured remains of people who lost their lives.

The bodies "continued arriving: the count kept increasing", Bruno Itan described. The total contained those of police officers.

One individual was found without a head - while others appeared "totally disfigured", he explained. Many also had what appeared to be stab wounds.

In excess of 120 victims were killed in the Tuesday operation against a criminal group - the bloodiest action the municipality has seen.

The eyewitness explained that he was first alerted concerning the action Tuesday morning by community members living in Alemão, who contacted him informing him an armed confrontation was occurring.

The reporter went to a local medical facility, where the victims were coming in.

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

"Security forces established a perimeter and said: 'Journalists doesn't get past here'."

However, the photographer, who grew up in the area, reported he was able to gain access into the cordoned-off area, where he continued through the night.

He reported during the night, community members began to search the mountainous area which divides Penha from the adjacent Alemão area for family members who were unaccounted for since the police raid.

Community members from the Penha area organized the discovered victims in a public space - the documented evidence reveal the response of the people there.

"The violence of it all shook me deeply: the pain of relatives, women collapsing, women carrying children, crying, angry family members," the reporter recounted.

The eyewitness

The official of the region announced that the extensive law enforcement effort involving around 2,500 security personnel was designed to preventing an illegal organization called Comando Vermelho from increasing their control.

Initially, state authorities maintained that "60 suspects plus four law enforcement personnel" had been killed in the raid.

Officials subsequently stated that initial estimates indicates that 117 individuals have been killed.

Rio's public defender's office, that gives legal support to low-income residents, has estimated the final tally of fatalities at 132.

Per investigative findings, the gang stands as the sole illegal faction which in recent years has been able to make territorial gains across the region.

It is generally regarded as a major illegal faction nationally, alongside another major gang, with a background dating back more than 50 years.

According to correspondent an expert, who has been covering crime in Rio for years, the gang "works as a system" with area gang leaders joining the organization and acting as "commercial associates".

The criminal group engages primarily in narcotics distribution, while also dealing in firearms, precious metals, petroleum products, alcohol and tobacco.

Per law enforcement statements, gang members are well armed and officials reported that throughout the operation, they came under attack using drone-delivered explosives.

The state leader of the region, the government representative, described organization participants as criminal extremists and called the security forces fatally injured in the action as brave public servants.

Nevertheless, the total of casualties in the security action has come in for criticism with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights stating they were "appalled".

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

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

He continued that the events worsened because the suspects resisted aggressively: "It was a consequence of the retaliation they executed and the excessive violence by those criminals."

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

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 to security forces".

A police official from the police department additionally stated that tactical gear, protective equipment, and weapons" were stripped from the victims and showed footage seemingly depicting an individual removing tactical gear {off a corpse