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The eyewitness

A reporter who observed the consequences of a massive Brazilian police operation in the Brazilian city has reported how residents brought back mutilated bodies of people who lost their lives.

The casualties "kept piling up: the count kept increasing", Bruno Itan described. They included law enforcement personnel.

One of the bodies had been decapitated - others were "completely mutilated", he explained. Several bodies showed what appeared to be stab wounds.

In excess of 120 victims were killed in the Tuesday operation targeting an illegal organization - the deadliest such raid in the city.

The photographer explained that he was first alerted to the raid in the early hours by residents living in Alemão, who contacted him informing him there was a shoot-out.

The reporter went to the Getúlio Vargas hospital, where the bodies were arriving.

The photographer stated that the police stopped members of the press from entering the operation zone, where the security measures were occurring.

"Security forces created a barrier and said: 'Journalists cannot proceed beyond this point'."

However, the photographer, who spent his childhood in the area, explained he managed to enter past the security perimeter, where he continued until the next morning.

He described during the night, area inhabitants began to search the mountainous area that borders Penha from the adjacent Alemão area for loved ones whose whereabouts were unknown since the police raid.

Community members from the Penha area organized the recovered bodies in a square - the photographer's images reveal the response of the people there.

"The brutality of it all impacted me a lot: the pain of loved ones, mothers fainting, expectant spouses, sobbing, outraged parents," the reporter recounted.

The photographer

The governor of Rio state announced that the massive police operation with approximately 2,500 security personnel was designed to preventing a gang known as Comando Vermelho from growing their influence.

Initially, state authorities claimed that sixty alleged criminals along with four officers" lost their lives in the operation.

They have since said that initial estimates shows that 117 alleged criminals have been killed.

The legal assistance organization, which provides legal assistance to low-income residents, has estimated the final tally of people killed as 132.

Based on expert analysis, the criminal organization represents the unique criminal entity that in the past few years has succeeded to expand its territory in the state of Rio de Janeiro.

It is widely considered one of the two largest gangs in the country, alongside another major gang, and has a history extending half a century.

Per correspondent Rafael Soares, who has long reported on illegal operations in Rio extensively, the gang "works as a system" with local criminal leaders affiliating with the group and serving as "operational allies".

The organization focuses mainly on drug trafficking, but also smuggles guns, valuable minerals, petroleum products, beverages and tobacco.

According to the authorities, gang members are well armed and authorities stated that while the action was underway, they faced assaults from explosive-laden drones.

The state leader of the region, the political leader, labeled gang affiliates as drug terrorists and called the four police officers who died during the operation as courageous individuals.

However, the count of casualties in the security action has received condemnation from international human rights authorities expressing they felt "horrified".

At a news conference the following day, Governor Castro justified security actions.

"It wasn't our intention to kill anyone. We intended to arrest them all alive," he said.

He continued that the events intensified because the suspects had retaliated: "It resulted of the counterattack they executed and the excessive violence by the illegal group."

The official also said that the bodies displayed by locals in the area had been "tampered with".

In a post through digital channels, he asserted that particular individuals had been stripped of the camouflage clothing that he stated they possessed "to transfer accusation toward law enforcement".

Felipe Curi representing security forces additionally stated that "camouflage clothing, vests, and weapons" were taken away from the victims and showed footage appearing to show an individual cutting camouflage clothing {off a corpse