The bodies just kept coming - photographer recounts deadly Rio security action

The eyewitness

A reporter who observed the consequences of a massive law enforcement action in the Brazilian city has recounted how local people came back with badly injured victims of the deceased individuals.

The casualties "kept coming: the numbers kept rising", the photographer reported. They included those of police officers.

A particular victim had been decapitated - additional victims were "completely mutilated", he explained. Several bodies showed evidence of blade trauma.

More than 120 people were killed during Tuesday's raid against a criminal group - the bloodiest action Rio has experienced.

The photographer reported that residents first notified him to the raid in the early hours by community members living in Alemão, who reached out alerting him gunfire had erupted.

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

The eyewitness reported that security forces blocked media personnel from going into the affected area, where the security measures was under way.

"Security forces created a barrier and declared: 'Journalists are not allowed to pass'."

However, the photographer, who spent his childhood in the area, stated he was able to enter past the security perimeter, where he remained until dawn.

He explained that Tuesday night, local residents began to search the mountainous area that borders the Penha neighborhood from the adjacent Alemão area for relatives who were unaccounted for following the security action.

Community members from the Penha area arranged the recovered bodies in a square - the photographer's images show the reaction of the gathered crowd.

"The harsh reality of what occurred shook me a lot: the pain of loved ones, women collapsing, women carrying children, sobbing, furious relatives," the photographer recalled.

The photographer

The state leader of the region announced that the extensive law enforcement effort with approximately 2,500 officers was intended to stopping an illegal organization referred to as Red Command from increasing their control.

Initially, local officials stated that sixty individuals along with four officers" were fatally injured in the raid.

They have since said that initial estimates shows that 117 alleged criminals were fatally injured.

The public legal service, that gives legal support to disadvantaged individuals, has calculated the overall count of people killed as 132.

Based on expert analysis, the gang is the only criminal group that recently has succeeded to expand its territory across the region.

Experts commonly view as a major illegal faction in Brazil, together with another major gang, with a background dating back more than 50 years.

Per correspondent an expert, who has long reported on criminal activity in the city extensively, Red Command "functions as a network" with area gang leaders affiliating with the group and becoming "commercial associates".

The criminal group concentrates largely on narcotics distribution, but also smuggles firearms, precious metals, energy resources, liquor cigarettes.

According to the authorities, criminal affiliates possess significant weaponry and officials reported that during the raid, they faced assaults from explosive-laden drones.

The governor of the region, Cláudio Castro, described gang affiliates as "narcoterrorists" and described the four police officers killed in the raid as courageous individuals.

But the number of casualties in the operation has come in for criticism from international human rights authorities stating they were "appalled".

During a press briefing on Wednesday, the state leader 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 intensified as the individuals had retaliated: "It resulted of the retaliation they executed and the disproportionate use of force by those criminals."

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

In a post on online platforms, he asserted that some of them had been stripped of tactical gear that he stated they possessed "to transfer accusation to security forces".

A police official of Rio's civil police force also said that military attire, protective equipment, and weapons" were taken away from the casualties and showed footage apparently demonstrating a person cutting camouflage clothing {off a corpse