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The photographer

An eyewitness who documented the consequences of a large-scale law enforcement action in the Brazilian city has recounted how local people returned with mutilated bodies of people who lost their lives.

The victims "kept coming: 25, 30, 35, 40, 45...", Bruno Itan stated. Among them were security forces.

One of the bodies was found without a head - others were "totally disfigured", he explained. Numerous victims displayed what he described as knife injuries.

More than 120 people lost their lives during the security action against a criminal group - the most lethal operation Rio has experienced.

The photographer explained that he initially learned about the operation in the early hours by local people living in Alemão, who contacted him telling him gunfire had erupted.

The reporter traveled to the Getúlio Vargas hospital, where the casualties were arriving.

The eyewitness reported that security forces stopped members of the press from accessing the Penha neighborhood, where the police action were occurring.

"Police officers created a barrier and declared: 'Journalists doesn't get past here'."

Nevertheless, the eyewitness, who grew up in the area, reported he was able to make his way past the security perimeter, where he continued until dawn.

He described that evening, local residents began to search the elevated terrain that borders the Penha neighborhood from the nearby Alemão neighbourhood for family members whose whereabouts were unknown since the police raid.

Community members living in Penha organized the discovered victims in an open area - the documented evidence display the response of the gathered crowd.

"The violence of it all impacted me deeply: the pain of loved ones, mothers fainting, pregnant wives, weeping, outraged parents," the reporter recounted.

The photographer

The official of the state declared that the extensive law enforcement effort with approximately 2,500 officers was designed to preventing a criminal group called the criminal faction from expanding its territory.

At first, state authorities claimed that "60 suspects plus four law enforcement personnel" lost their lives in the raid.

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

Rio's public defender's office, which provides legal assistance to the poor, has put the final tally of people killed at 132.

Per investigative findings, the gang stands as the sole illegal faction that in the past few years has managed to increase its control across the region.

It is widely considered one of the two largest gangs nationally, alongside a rival criminal group, featuring a timeline extending half a century.

Based on correspondent an expert, with extensive experience documenting illegal operations in Rio over many years, the gang "operates like a franchise" with neighborhood bosses forming part of the gang and becoming "operational allies".

The criminal group engages primarily in illegal drug trade, additionally trafficking firearms, valuable minerals, petroleum products, alcohol smoking products.

According to the authorities, organization members possess significant weaponry and police said that throughout the operation, they came under attack using drone-delivered explosives.

The state leader of the state, the government representative, characterized gang affiliates as "narcoterrorists" and described the security forces killed in the raid as "heroes".

However, the count of people killed in the security action has received condemnation from international human rights authorities stating they were "shocked".

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

"It wasn't our intention to cause fatalities. We wanted to take suspects into custody without harm," he stated.

He continued that the circumstances had escalated because the suspects had retaliated: "It resulted of the retaliation they carried out and the overwhelming response by the illegal group."

The governor further reported that the victims displayed by locals in the neighborhood had been "tampered with".

In a post on social media, he said that particular individuals had been stripped of the camouflage clothing that he stated they possessed "to transfer accusation onto the police".

A law enforcement representative of Rio's civil police force also said that tactical gear, protective equipment, and arms" were taken away from the casualties and displayed evidence appearing to show a man cutting camouflage clothing {off a corpse