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The photographer

An eyewitness who documented the consequences of a massive law enforcement action in Rio de Janeiro has reported how residents brought back disfigured remains of people who lost their lives.

The victims "kept coming: the count kept increasing", the eyewitness described. The total contained security forces.

A particular victim had been decapitated - additional victims were "completely mutilated", he explained. Numerous victims displayed what he described as stab wounds.

More than 120 people were killed in the Tuesday operation on a criminal gang - the deadliest such raid the municipality has seen.

The photographer stated that he was first alerted to the raid in the early hours by local people from the Alemão area, who reached out telling him an armed confrontation was occurring.

The eyewitness made his way to the healthcare center, where the victims were arriving.

The eyewitness reported that law enforcement blocked media personnel from entering the Penha neighborhood, where the police action were taking place.

"Law enforcement personnel established a perimeter and said: 'Media representatives are not allowed to pass'."

Nevertheless, the eyewitness, who grew up in that neighborhood, reported he managed to gain access into the cordoned-off area, where he continued until the next morning.

He reported that evening, community members began to search the mountainous area that borders the Penha neighborhood from the nearby Alemão neighbourhood for family members who had been missing since the police raid.

Local people living in Penha arranged the recovered bodies in a square - the photographer's images display the emotions of those present.

"The violence of the situation impacted me a lot: the grief of the families, women collapsing, pregnant wives, sobbing, angry family members," the eyewitness remembered.

The eyewitness

The state leader of Rio state announced that the large-scale security action involving around 2,500 security personnel was aimed at preventing a criminal group referred to as Comando Vermelho from increasing their control.

At first, state authorities maintained that sixty individuals and four police officers" lost their lives in the operation.

Officials subsequently stated that early calculations indicates that 117 individuals lost their lives.

Rio's public defender's office, that offers legal help to disadvantaged individuals, has estimated the final tally of fatalities 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 generally regarded as a major illegal faction in the country, alongside a rival criminal group, with a background spanning over five decades.

Based on reporter a specialist, with extensive experience documenting crime in Rio extensively, the gang "works as a system" with area gang leaders affiliating with the group and acting as "business partners".

The criminal group focuses mainly on narcotics distribution, while also dealing in guns, precious metals, petroleum products, beverages smoking products.

Per law enforcement statements, organization members have substantial firearms and officials reported that during the raid, they encountered resistance from explosive-laden drones.

The governor of Rio state, the political leader, described gang affiliates as "narcoterrorists" and called the four police officers killed in the raid as courageous individuals.

But the number of casualties in the security action has received condemnation with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights saying it was "horrified".

In a media appearance on Wednesday, Governor Castro defended the police force.

"We did not plan to kill anyone. We intended to arrest them all alive," he declared.

He continued that the circumstances had escalated because the suspects resisted aggressively: "It occurred of the retaliation they carried out and the disproportionate use of force by the illegal group."

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

Through a message on social media, he claimed that some of them had been removed of the camouflage clothing which he claimed they wore "to transfer accusation onto the police".

A police official of Rio's civil police force also said that "camouflage clothing, protective equipment, and firearms" had been removed from the bodies and displayed evidence apparently demonstrating an individual stripping military attire {off a corpse