The victims kept arriving - eyewitness describes lethal Rio security action

Bruno Itan

A photographer who documented the results of a large-scale law enforcement action in Rio de Janeiro has recounted how local people brought back badly injured victims of those who had died.

The bodies "kept piling up: the count kept increasing", Bruno Itan described. The total contained those of police officers.

One of the bodies had been decapitated - additional victims were "totally disfigured", he said. Numerous victims displayed what appeared to be stab wounds.

More than 120 people lost their lives in the Tuesday operation against a criminal group - the bloodiest action Rio has experienced.

The photographer stated that he initially learned about the operation early on Tuesday by local people from the Alemão area, who contacted him informing him there was a shoot-out.

The eyewitness went to the Getúlio Vargas hospital, where the bodies were coming in.

The eyewitness reported that the police blocked media personnel from going into the Penha neighborhood, where the security measures was under way.

"Security forces established a perimeter and announced: 'Media representatives doesn't get past here'."

But Itan, who grew up in that neighborhood, reported he managed to enter into the cordoned-off area, where he continued until dawn.

He explained that Tuesday night, area inhabitants commenced searching the hillside which divides the Penha neighborhood from the nearby Alemão neighbourhood for loved ones whose whereabouts were unknown since the police raid.

Local people of the Penha neighbourhood proceeded to place the discovered victims in an open area - and Itan's photos show the response of the gathered crowd.

"The harsh reality of what occurred impacted me profoundly: the pain of loved ones, women collapsing, women carrying children, crying, furious relatives," the photographer recalled.

The photographer

The governor of the region stated that the large-scale security action deploying about 2,500 law enforcement members was designed to preventing an illegal organization known as Red Command from growing their influence.

At first, the Rio state government stated that sixty alleged criminals along with four officers" lost their lives during the action.

They have since said that their "preliminary" count indicates that 117 individuals were fatally injured.

The legal assistance organization, which provides legal assistance to low-income residents, has put the total number of casualties to be 132.

According to researchers, the criminal organization is the only criminal group that in the past few years has been able to make territorial gains across the region.

Experts commonly view among the biggest criminal organizations nationally, alongside a rival criminal group, and has a history spanning over five decades.

Based on Brazilian journalist Rafael Soares, with extensive experience documenting criminal activity in the city extensively, the criminal organization "operates like a franchise" with neighborhood bosses forming part of the gang and serving as "business partners".

The criminal group concentrates largely on drug trafficking, but also smuggles guns, valuable minerals, fuel, beverages cigarettes.

Per law enforcement statements, organization members possess significant weaponry and officials reported that during the raid, they encountered resistance using drone-delivered explosives.

The state leader of Rio state, Cláudio Castro, characterized Red Command members as drug terrorists and called the four police officers killed in the raid as brave public servants.

Nevertheless, the total of casualties during the raid has received condemnation from international human rights authorities stating they were "shocked".

At a news conference the following day, the official justified security actions.

"We did not plan to result in deaths. We intended to arrest them all alive," he declared.

He continued that the circumstances had escalated due to the alleged criminals resisted aggressively: "It was a consequence of the resistance they carried out and the disproportionate use of force by the illegal group."

The state leader also said that the victims displayed by locals in Penha had been "manipulated".

In a post on social media, he said that certain victims had been taken of tactical gear that he stated they possessed "in order to shift blame to security forces".

Felipe Curi representing security forces further reported that tactical gear, body armor, and weapons" were taken away from the casualties and displayed evidence seemingly depicting a person removing tactical gear {off a corpse