A photographer who witnessed the aftermath of a massive Brazilian police operation in Rio de Janeiro has told the BBC of how residents came back with mutilated bodies of those who had died.
The bodies kept coming: 25, 30, 35, 40, 45..., Bruno Itan told BBC Brasil. They included those of police officers.
One of the bodies had been decapitated - others were totally disfigured, he said. Many also had what he says were stab wounds.
More than 120 people were killed during Tuesday's raid on a criminal gang - the deadliest such raid in the city.
Bruno Itan told BBC Brasil that he was first alerted to the raid early on Tuesday by residents of the Alemão neighbourhood, who sent him messages telling him there was a shoot-out.
The photographer made his way to the Getúlio Vargas hospital, where the bodies were arriving. Itan says that the police stopped members of the press from entering the Penha neighbourhood, where the operation was under way.
However, he managed to enter the area where he remained until the next morning. Local residents began to search the hillside separating Penha from the Alemão neighbourhood for relatives who had been missing since the police raid.
Residents of the Penha neighbourhood proceeded to place the recovered bodies in a square - and Itan's photos capture their devastating reactions: sorrowful families, feinting mothers, and outraged parents.
The governor of Rio state said that the operation, which involved around 2,500 security personnel, aimed to combat the expanding territory of the criminal group known as Comando Vermelho (Red Command). Initial reports from the government claimed that 60 suspects and four police officers were killed, but later inquiries indicated that as many as 132 individuals lost their lives.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed horror over the operation, further complicating the narrative surrounding police accountability and the tragic loss of life in Rio de Janeiro.
