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Bruno Itan

A photographer who documented the results of a massive Brazilian police operation in the metropolitan area has described how community members came back with disfigured remains of those who had died.

The victims "continued arriving: the count kept increasing", Bruno Itan reported. They included those of police officers.

One of the bodies had been decapitated - others were "totally disfigured", he reported. Numerous victims displayed evidence of blade trauma.

In excess of 120 victims were killed in the Tuesday operation on a criminal gang - the bloodiest action in the city.

Bruno Itan explained that residents first notified him concerning the action early on Tuesday by community members from the Alemão area, who reached out informing him there was a shoot-out.

The reporter made his way to the healthcare center, where the casualties were arriving.

Itan explained that the police stopped members of the press from going into the operation zone, where the operation were occurring.

"Police officers created a barrier and declared: 'Media representatives cannot proceed beyond this point'."

However, the photographer, who was raised in the area, reported he was able to gain access past the security perimeter, where he remained until dawn.

He described that evening, area inhabitants commenced searching the hillside which divides the Penha neighborhood from the adjacent Alemão area for family members whose whereabouts were unknown since the police raid.

Community members living in Penha arranged the discovered victims in a public space - and Itan's photos display the reaction of the gathered crowd.

"The violence of what occurred impacted me a lot: the grief of the families, mothers fainting, expectant spouses, crying, furious relatives," the eyewitness remembered.

Bruno Itan

The governor of Rio state declared that the massive police operation deploying about 2,500 security personnel was aimed at halting a gang referred to as the criminal faction from expanding its territory.

Initially, state authorities maintained that sixty individuals along with four officers" were fatally injured during the action.

Authorities later reported that initial estimates suggests that 117 alleged criminals were fatally injured.

The legal assistance organization, that offers legal help to the poor, has calculated the final tally of casualties to be 132.

Per investigative findings, the criminal organization represents the unique criminal entity that in the past few years has been able to make territorial gains in the state of Rio de Janeiro.

It is generally regarded among the biggest criminal organizations nationally, together with First Capital Command, featuring a timeline spanning over five decades.

Based on reporter an expert, with extensive experience documenting criminal activity in the city extensively, the gang "operates like a franchise" with local criminal leaders affiliating with the group and serving as "commercial associates".

The organization concentrates largely on narcotics distribution, but also smuggles guns, valuable minerals, energy resources, alcohol cigarettes.

Per law enforcement statements, gang members are well armed and authorities stated that throughout the operation, they encountered resistance from explosive-laden drones.

The governor of the region, the political leader, characterized organization participants as "narcoterrorists" and called the four police officers killed in the raid as "heroes".

But the number of fatalities in the operation has received condemnation from UN human rights officials expressing they felt "appalled".

During a press briefing the following day, the state leader justified security actions.

"It wasn't our intention to result in deaths. We wanted to detain everyone safely," he said.

He continued that the circumstances worsened because the suspects resisted aggressively: "It occurred of the counterattack they carried out and the overwhelming response by the illegal group."

The governor further reported that the bodies presented by community members in the neighborhood had been "tampered with".

In a post through digital channels, he claimed that some of them had been taken of tactical gear that he stated they possessed "in order to shift blame onto the police".

Felipe Curi representing security forces further reported that "camouflage clothing, protective equipment, and weapons" were taken away from the casualties and presented video apparently demonstrating a person cutting camouflage clothing {off a corpse