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Bruno Itan

An eyewitness who documented the results of a massive security raid in Rio de Janeiro has recounted how local people returned with badly injured victims of those who had died.

The casualties "kept coming: the count kept increasing", Bruno Itan reported. They included security forces.

One individual was found without a head - additional victims were "completely mutilated", he reported. Many also had what he described as blade trauma.

Over 120 individuals were killed in the Tuesday operation on a criminal gang - the most lethal operation in the city.

Bruno Itan stated that he initially learned to the raid in the early hours by local people of the Alemão neighbourhood, who reached out informing him an armed confrontation was occurring.

The eyewitness made his way to a local medical facility, where the victims were being brought.

The eyewitness reported that law enforcement prevented journalists from accessing the operation zone, where the operation was under way.

"Police officers formed a line and declared: 'Media representatives cannot proceed beyond this point'."

But Itan, who was raised in that neighborhood, reported he succeeded to make his way into the restricted zone, where he stayed through the night.

He described that Tuesday night, local residents commenced searching the hillside that borders Penha from the neighboring Alemão community for loved ones who had been missing after the operation.

Community members of the Penha neighbourhood proceeded to place the recovered bodies in a square - and Itan's photos display the reaction of those present.

"The harsh reality of it all impacted me a lot: the grief of loved ones, mothers fainting, expectant spouses, sobbing, angry family members," the eyewitness remembered.

The photographer

The governor of Rio 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 increasing their control.

Originally, local officials stated that sixty individuals plus four law enforcement personnel" had been killed during the action.

They have since said that initial estimates indicates that 117 alleged criminals lost their lives.

The legal assistance organization, which provides legal assistance to disadvantaged individuals, has calculated the total number of fatalities to be 132.

Based on expert analysis, Red Command is the only criminal group that in the past few years has been able to make territorial gains in the state of Rio de Janeiro.

It is generally regarded among the biggest criminal organizations in Brazil, in company with another major gang, and has a history extending half a century.

Based on correspondent Rafael Soares, with extensive experience documenting criminal activity in the city extensively, the gang "functions as a network" with area gang leaders joining the organization and serving as "operational allies".

The organization focuses mainly on narcotics distribution, while also dealing in firearms, valuable minerals, energy resources, beverages cigarettes.

Based on official reports, gang members are well armed and authorities stated that throughout the operation, they came under attack from explosive-laden drones.

The governor of the region, the political leader, characterized gang affiliates as criminal extremists and referred to the four police officers killed in the raid as "heroes".

However, the count of casualties in the security action has come in for criticism from international human rights authorities stating they were "shocked".

In a media appearance on Wednesday, the official supported law enforcement.

"We did not plan to kill anyone. We wanted to arrest them all alive," he said.

He added that the events had escalated because the suspects fought back: "It occurred of the counterattack they implemented and the overwhelming response by those criminals."

The governor also said that the casualties displayed by locals in the neighborhood were "altered".

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

A police official representing security forces also said that "camouflage clothing, body armor, and weapons" had been removed from the casualties and displayed evidence appearing to show a person removing tactical gear {off a corpse