The casualties continued piling up - photographer recounts deadly Rio security action

Bruno Itan

A reporter who documented the aftermath of a large-scale security raid in the Brazilian city has recounted how local people brought back mutilated bodies of people who lost their lives.

The victims "kept coming: the numbers kept rising", the photographer described. The total contained security forces.

One individual was discovered headless - additional victims were "severely damaged", he explained. Several bodies showed what he described as blade trauma.

More than 120 people were fatally injured during Tuesday's raid targeting an illegal organization - the deadliest such raid in the city.

The photographer stated that he was first alerted to the raid Tuesday morning by residents of the Alemão neighbourhood, who reached out alerting him gunfire had erupted.

The photographer traveled to the healthcare center, where the bodies were arriving.

The eyewitness reported that law enforcement prevented journalists from going into the Penha neighborhood, where the police action were occurring.

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

However, the photographer, who spent his childhood in that neighborhood, reported he managed to gain access into the cordoned-off area, where he stayed until dawn.

He described during the night, area inhabitants started looking the elevated terrain that separates the community of Penha and the nearby Alemão neighbourhood for family members who had been missing since the police raid.

Residents from the Penha area proceeded to place the located casualties in a public space - the photographer's images display the emotions of the people there.

"The harsh reality of the situation impacted me deeply: the grief of relatives, women collapsing, expectant spouses, weeping, angry family members," the photographer recalled.

Bruno Itan

The state leader of Rio state stated that the massive police operation involving around 2,500 law enforcement members was aimed at stopping an illegal organization known as Comando Vermelho from expanding its territory.

Originally, local officials stated that sixty individuals and four police officers" had been killed in the operation.

Authorities later reported that initial estimates shows that 117 alleged criminals lost their lives.

The public legal service, that offers legal help to low-income residents, has put the total number of fatalities to be 132.

Based on expert analysis, the criminal organization is the only criminal group which in recent years has been able to expand its territory in the state of Rio de Janeiro.

It is widely considered as a major illegal faction nationally, together with a rival criminal group, and has a history spanning over five decades.

Per reporter an expert, who has been covering illegal operations in Rio extensively, the criminal organization "functions as a network" with local criminal leaders forming part of the gang and becoming "business partners".

The criminal group engages primarily in illegal drug trade, but also smuggles weapons, gold, energy resources, liquor and tobacco.

According to the authorities, gang members have substantial firearms and police said that while the action was underway, they faced assaults using drone-delivered explosives.

The state leader of Rio state, the political leader, described organization participants as criminal extremists and described the security forces fatally injured in the action as courageous individuals.

Nevertheless, the total of people killed during the raid has received condemnation from UN human rights officials stating they were "shocked".

At a news conference on Wednesday, the official supported law enforcement.

"It wasn't our intention to cause fatalities. We wanted to arrest them all alive," he declared.

He added that the circumstances had escalated as the individuals fought back: "It resulted of the retaliation they carried out and the disproportionate use of force from the gang members."

The state leader additionally stated that the victims presented by community members in Penha had been "manipulated".

Through a message on online platforms, he asserted that particular individuals had been taken of tactical gear he said they had been wearing "in order to shift blame toward law enforcement".

Felipe Curi of Rio's civil police force additionally stated that military attire, protective equipment, and arms" were taken away from the bodies and showed footage seemingly depicting an individual stripping military attire {off a corpse