The casualties continued piling up - reporter shares deadly Rio security action

Bruno Itan

An eyewitness who witnessed the consequences of a massive law enforcement action in Rio de Janeiro has recounted how community members returned with mutilated bodies of the deceased individuals.

The bodies "kept coming: the numbers kept rising", the eyewitness described. They included law enforcement personnel.

One of the bodies had been decapitated - additional victims were "completely mutilated", he said. Several bodies showed what appeared to be stab wounds.

Over 120 individuals lost their lives during Tuesday's raid targeting an illegal organization - the bloodiest action Rio has experienced.

Bruno Itan stated that he was first alerted concerning the action early on Tuesday by local people of the Alemão neighbourhood, who contacted him informing him there was a shoot-out.

The eyewitness traveled to the healthcare center, where the bodies were coming in.

The eyewitness reported that the police blocked media personnel from accessing the affected area, where the police action were occurring.

"Security forces formed a line and announced: 'The press cannot proceed beyond this point'."

Nevertheless, the eyewitness, who was raised in the community, reported he managed to make his way into the restricted zone, where he continued through the night.

He reported that evening, area inhabitants started looking the elevated terrain that borders the community of Penha and the adjacent Alemão area for loved ones who were unaccounted for after the operation.

Residents from the Penha area proceeded to place the located casualties in a square - the documented evidence show the reaction of the people there.

"The brutality of what occurred affected me deeply: the grief of loved ones, parents losing consciousness, women carrying children, sobbing, furious relatives," the eyewitness remembered.

Bruno Itan

The official of the state announced that the massive police operation deploying about 2,500 law enforcement members was intended to halting a gang known as Comando Vermelho from expanding its territory.

Initially, the Rio state government stated that "60 suspects along with four officers" had been killed in the operation.

Authorities later reported that early calculations suggests that 117 individuals have been killed.

Rio's public defender's office, that offers legal help to disadvantaged individuals, has calculated the final tally of casualties at 132.

According to researchers, the gang is the only criminal group that recently has succeeded to increase its control in the state of Rio de Janeiro.

It is widely considered as a major illegal faction in Brazil, in company with a rival criminal group, and has a history dating back more than 50 years.

Per Brazilian journalist an expert, who has long reported on crime in Rio over many years, the criminal organization "functions as a network" with local criminal leaders forming part of the gang and acting as "operational allies".

The organization engages primarily in illegal drug trade, but also smuggles guns, gold, energy resources, beverages smoking products.

Per law enforcement statements, organization members are well armed and police said that while the action was underway, they came under attack using drone-delivered explosives.

The governor of the region, Cláudio Castro, described organization participants as criminal extremists and called the four police officers killed in the raid as courageous individuals.

However, the count of people killed in the security action has received condemnation from UN human rights officials expressing they felt "appalled".

In a media appearance the following day, the official justified security actions.

"It wasn't our intention to cause fatalities. We intended to arrest them all alive," he said.

He further explained that the circumstances intensified due to the alleged criminals resisted aggressively: "It resulted of the resistance they carried out and the excessive violence from the gang members."

The governor additionally stated that the casualties presented by community members in the neighborhood had been "tampered with".

Via a statement on social media, he asserted that particular individuals had been stripped of tactical gear which he claimed they wore "to transfer accusation toward law enforcement".

A police official representing security forces further reported that "camouflage clothing, body armor, and firearms" had been removed from the victims and displayed evidence apparently demonstrating a person stripping military attire {off a corpse