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The eyewitness

A reporter who documented the aftermath of an extensive law enforcement action in the Brazilian city has reported how local people returned with disfigured remains of those who had died.

The bodies "continued arriving: 25, 30, 35, 40, 45...", the eyewitness reported. Among them were security forces.

One individual was discovered headless - additional victims were "totally disfigured", he explained. Several bodies showed evidence of stab wounds.

In excess of 120 victims were fatally injured in the Tuesday operation targeting an illegal organization - the deadliest such raid in the city.

The eyewitness reported that he was first alerted concerning the action early on Tuesday by residents living in Alemão, who reached out telling him gunfire had erupted.

The reporter made his way to a local medical facility, where the casualties were arriving.

The photographer stated that the police prevented journalists from entering the affected area, where the police action were taking place.

"Police officers established a perimeter and announced: 'Media representatives are not allowed to pass'."

However, the photographer, who spent his childhood in the community, explained he succeeded to gain access into the restricted zone, where he remained until dawn.

He reported that Tuesday night, local residents began to search the hillside that separates the Penha neighborhood from the neighboring Alemão community for relatives who had been missing after the operation.

Residents living in Penha arranged the discovered victims in a public space - the documented evidence reveal the emotions of the people there.

"The violence of it all impacted me deeply: the sorrow of loved ones, mothers fainting, women carrying children, weeping, outraged parents," the reporter recounted.

The eyewitness

The state leader of Rio state announced that the extensive law enforcement effort involving around 2,500 security personnel was intended to preventing a criminal group called the criminal faction from expanding its territory.

Originally, local officials stated that sixty individuals plus four law enforcement personnel" had been killed in the raid.

Authorities later reported that their "preliminary" count suggests that 117 individuals lost their lives.

The public legal service, that offers legal help to disadvantaged individuals, has put the total number of people killed as 132.

Per investigative findings, the criminal organization is the only criminal group which in recent years has succeeded to increase its control across the region.

It is widely considered as a major illegal faction in the country, together with another major gang, and has a history spanning over five decades.

Per Brazilian journalist an expert, with extensive experience documenting criminal activity in the city for years, the criminal organization "operates like a franchise" with area gang leaders affiliating with the group and becoming "business partners".

The gang concentrates largely on illegal drug trade, while also dealing in guns, gold, fuel, alcohol cigarettes.

According to the authorities, organization members possess significant weaponry and officials reported that throughout the operation, they came under attack via weaponized unmanned aircraft.

The state leader of the state, Cláudio Castro, described Red Command members as "narcoterrorists" and called the security forces killed in the raid as brave public servants.

But the number of casualties in the operation has faced scrutiny with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights expressing they felt "appalled".

In a media appearance on Wednesday, the official supported law enforcement.

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

He further explained that the events intensified because the suspects resisted aggressively: "It resulted of the retaliation they carried out and the overwhelming response from the gang members."

The governor also said that the bodies presented by community members in the area had been "manipulated".

In a post through digital channels, he asserted that some of them had been stripped of the camouflage clothing he said they had been wearing "to redirect responsibility toward law enforcement".

Felipe Curi from the police department also said that tactical gear, body armor, and weapons" were taken away from the bodies and displayed evidence seemingly depicting an individual removing tactical gear {off a corpse