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The eyewitness

A photographer who witnessed the aftermath of an extensive law enforcement action in the Brazilian city has described how local people came back with badly injured victims of those who had died.

The bodies "kept piling up: 25, 30, 35, 40, 45...", the eyewitness stated. The total contained those of police officers.

One of the bodies was discovered headless - others were "severely damaged", he said. Many also had what he described as blade trauma.

In excess of 120 victims were killed during the security action against a criminal group - the deadliest such raid Rio has experienced.

The photographer stated that he was first alerted about the operation in the early hours by local people of the Alemão neighbourhood, who sent him messages telling him gunfire had erupted.

The photographer traveled to a local medical facility, where the victims were being brought.

Itan explained that law enforcement prevented journalists from going into the affected area, where the police action was under way.

"Security forces established a perimeter and announced: 'Media representatives cannot proceed beyond this point'."

Nevertheless, the eyewitness, who spent his childhood in the area, stated he was able to gain access into the cordoned-off area, where he stayed through the night.

He explained that Tuesday night, local residents commenced searching the mountainous area that separates the Penha neighborhood from the neighboring Alemão community for relatives who were unaccounted for after the operation.

Residents from the Penha area proceeded to place the discovered victims in an open area - the photographer's images show the response of the gathered crowd.

"The harsh reality of the situation affected me a lot: the sorrow of the families, women collapsing, expectant spouses, sobbing, angry family members," the photographer recalled.

Bruno Itan

The official of the state announced that the massive police operation deploying about 2,500 security personnel was designed to preventing a gang referred to as Red Command from growing their influence.

Initially, the Rio state government claimed that "60 suspects and four police officers" lost their lives in the raid.

Officials subsequently stated that early calculations suggests that 117 individuals have been killed.

Rio's public defender's office, which provides legal assistance to low-income residents, has calculated the final tally of casualties as 132.

Per investigative findings, Red Command stands as the sole illegal faction which in recent years has managed to expand its territory across the region.

It is generally regarded as a major illegal faction in the country, together with a rival criminal group, and has a history extending half a century.

Per Brazilian journalist an expert, who has been covering crime in Rio extensively, Red Command "operates like a franchise" with local criminal leaders joining the organization and becoming "commercial associates".

The criminal group concentrates largely on drug trafficking, while also dealing in guns, precious metals, petroleum products, liquor cigarettes.

According to the authorities, gang members have substantial firearms and officials reported that during the raid, they encountered resistance from explosive-laden drones.

The governor of the state, the government representative, described gang affiliates as "narcoterrorists" and called the security forces fatally injured in the action as "heroes".

But the number of people killed in the operation has faced scrutiny from international human rights authorities expressing they felt "horrified".

At a news conference on Wednesday, the state leader defended the police force.

"We did not plan to kill anyone. We intended to take suspects into custody without harm," he declared.

He continued that the situation intensified due to the alleged criminals resisted aggressively: "It occurred of the resistance they implemented and the excessive violence by those criminals."

The governor further reported that the bodies displayed by locals in the area were "altered".

In a post on social media, he said that certain victims had been taken of military-style attire that he stated they possessed "to redirect responsibility onto the police".

A police official representing security forces further reported that "camouflage clothing, protective equipment, and weapons" were stripped from the casualties and showed footage apparently demonstrating a man cutting camouflage clothing {off a corpse