🔗 Share this article The bodies just kept coming - photographer recounts fatal Rio police raid The eyewitness Multiple casualties were arranged in a public space in northern Rio following the deadliest police raid the municipality has experienced A photographer who documented the aftermath of an extensive Brazilian police operation in Rio de Janeiro has recounted how local people returned with badly injured victims of people who lost their lives. The casualties "continued arriving: the count kept increasing", the eyewitness reported. The total contained law enforcement personnel. One individual had been decapitated - others were "completely mutilated", he reported. Many also had what he described as knife injuries. More than 120 people were fatally injured during Tuesday's raid on a criminal gang - the most lethal operation the municipality has seen. In excess of 100 suspects were taken into custody as part of the operation Bruno Itan reported that he was first alerted concerning the action early on Tuesday by local people of the Alemão neighbourhood, who reached out informing him there was a shoot-out. The eyewitness made his way to a local medical facility, where the casualties were coming in. Itan explained that law enforcement blocked media personnel from accessing the affected area, where the police action was under way. "Law enforcement personnel established a perimeter and said: 'Media representatives are not allowed to pass'." But Itan, who spent his childhood in the area, stated he was able to make his way into the cordoned-off area, where he stayed through the night. He described during the night, local residents commenced searching the hillside that borders the community of Penha and the adjacent Alemão area for loved ones who were unaccounted for following the security action. Local people living in Penha organized the discovered victims in a public space - the photographer's images reveal the emotions of the gathered crowd. "The violence of the situation shook me deeply: the pain of the families, women collapsing, women carrying children, crying, furious relatives," the photographer recalled. The photographer There was disbelief in the neighborhood as residents retrieved more and more bodies from the adjacent terrain The governor of the state declared that the large-scale security action involving around 2,500 law enforcement members was aimed at halting a criminal group called the criminal faction from increasing their control. At first, local officials stated that "60 suspects plus four law enforcement personnel" were fatally injured during the action. Authorities later reported that initial estimates indicates that 117 individuals have been killed. Rio's public defender's office, that offers legal help to disadvantaged individuals, has put the final tally of people killed to be 132. Based on expert analysis, the gang stands as the sole illegal faction that recently has managed to make territorial gains throughout Rio state. It is generally regarded as a major illegal faction in the country, alongside a rival criminal group, and has a history extending half a century. According to reporter Rafael Soares, who has been covering crime in Rio extensively, Red Command "functions as a network" with area gang leaders forming part of the gang and acting as "commercial associates". The criminal group concentrates largely on narcotics distribution, while also dealing in weapons, valuable minerals, fuel, alcohol smoking products. According to the authorities, criminal affiliates are well armed and authorities stated that during the raid, they faced assaults from explosive-laden drones. The governor of Rio state, the government representative, characterized organization participants as drug terrorists and described the security forces fatally injured in the action as courageous individuals. However, the count of people killed in the security action has received condemnation with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights stating they were "shocked". At a news conference the next day, the official justified security actions. "We did not plan to cause fatalities. We aimed to arrest them all alive," he declared. He added that the situation intensified because the suspects fought back: "It was a consequence of the counterattack they implemented and the excessive violence by those criminals." The state leader additionally stated that the bodies shown by residents in the area had been "manipulated". Through a message through digital channels, he claimed that particular individuals had been removed of tactical gear he said they had been wearing "in order to shift blame to security forces". Felipe Curi of Rio's civil police force also said that tactical gear, protective equipment, and weapons" were taken away from the casualties and displayed evidence apparently demonstrating an individual removing tactical gear {off a corpse