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The photographer

A reporter who witnessed the results of a massive law enforcement action in Rio de Janeiro has described how local people returned with disfigured remains of people who lost their lives.

The victims "continued arriving: 25, 30, 35, 40, 45...", the eyewitness described. Among them were those of police officers.

One individual had been decapitated - others were "completely mutilated", he said. Several bodies showed what appeared to be blade trauma.

More than 120 people were fatally injured in the Tuesday operation against a criminal group - the deadliest such raid Rio has experienced.

The photographer stated that he initially learned to the raid Tuesday morning by residents from the Alemão area, who reached out informing him there was a shoot-out.

The reporter went to the healthcare center, where the casualties were being brought.

The eyewitness reported that the police stopped members of the press from going into the Penha neighborhood, where the security measures were taking place.

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

However, the photographer, who was raised in the area, stated he managed to make his way into the cordoned-off area, where he continued until dawn.

He reported during the night, area inhabitants began to search the hillside that separates the Penha neighborhood from the neighboring Alemão community for relatives who were unaccounted for since the police raid.

Local people of the Penha neighbourhood organized the located casualties in a public space - the documented evidence show the reaction of the gathered crowd.

"The violence of it all affected me a lot: the sorrow of loved ones, mothers fainting, women carrying children, crying, furious relatives," the photographer recalled.

The photographer

The official of the region announced that the massive police operation with approximately 2,500 officers was intended to stopping a criminal group called Red Command from increasing their control.

Originally, the Rio state government stated that sixty individuals along with four officers" were fatally injured in the operation.

Authorities later reported that early calculations shows that 117 "suspects" lost their lives.

Rio's public defender's office, that offers legal help to low-income residents, has estimated the final tally of fatalities to be 132.

Based on expert analysis, the gang stands as the sole illegal faction which in recent years has managed to expand its territory across the region.

Experts commonly view one of the two largest gangs nationally, together with a rival criminal group, and has a history spanning over five decades.

Per correspondent an expert, who has long reported on crime in Rio for years, Red Command "operates like a franchise" with area gang leaders affiliating with the group and acting as "operational allies".

The gang concentrates largely on illegal drug trade, but also smuggles weapons, valuable minerals, energy resources, liquor cigarettes.

According to the authorities, organization members are well armed and police said that while the action was underway, they encountered resistance using drone-delivered explosives.

The state leader of Rio state, Cláudio Castro, described Red Command members as criminal extremists and referred to the four police officers fatally injured in the action as courageous individuals.

But the number of people killed in the operation has faced scrutiny from UN human rights officials saying it was "horrified".

At a news conference on Wednesday, Governor Castro supported law enforcement.

"There was no objective to result in deaths. We aimed to arrest them all alive," he declared.

He added that the circumstances worsened as the individuals resisted aggressively: "It was a consequence of the retaliation they carried out and the disproportionate use of force from the gang members."

The official also said that the victims shown by residents in Penha had been "tampered with".

Via a statement through digital channels, he said that some of them had been taken of the camouflage clothing which he claimed they wore "to transfer accusation to security forces".

A law enforcement representative representing security forces further reported that "camouflage clothing, protective equipment, and weapons" were stripped from the bodies and showed footage apparently demonstrating a person cutting camouflage clothing {off a corpse