Residents of a Rio de Janeiro community lined up their dead in the street on Wednesday after Brazil's bloodiest police raid killed at least 119 people, spotlighting the city's controversial war against drug gangs entrenched in poor neighborhoods.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said he was left horrified by the death toll from the operation, just days before Brazil hosts COP30 global climate talks in the Amazon city of Belem.

While activists and the United Nations raised concerns over the use of force by police, Rio's state government hailed the operation as a success in its bid to halt the takeover of territory by the powerful Comando Vermelho (Red Command) gang.

The heavily-armed group – which dropped bombs on officers from drones – has taken over large swathes of Rio de Janeiro in recent years, concentrating operations in sprawling favelas that are home to millions of people.

A day after the police operation paralysed the city, residents of the Complexo da Penha favela recovered dozens of bodies from a forest on its outskirts.

One man was decapitated and another completely disfigured, with residents denouncing what they termed "executions."

"The state came to massacre, it wasn't a (police) operation. They came directly to kill, to take lives," one woman, who did not wish to give her name, told AFP.

State authorities said the provisional death toll now stood at 119, including 115 suspected criminals and four police officers.

The Public Defender's Office, a state body in Rio that provides legal assistance to the poor, reported at least 132 deaths.

Large numbers of officers who took part in the operation were backed by armoured vehicles, helicopters and drones, as the streets of the favelas saw war-like scenes.

The police and suspected gang members traded heavy gunfire as terrified residents scrambled for cover.

While the operation unfolded, Comando Vermelho seized dozens of buses and used them to barricade main highways, and sent drones to attack the police with explosives, authorities said.

State governor Claudio Castro described the raid against what he has termed "narcoterrorism" as a "success" and said the only victims were the police officers who were killed.

Secretary of the military police, Marcelo de Menezes, told a press conference that elite special forces had deliberately pushed "criminals" into the forest abutting the favela, where the majority of fighting had taken place, to "protect the population."

Civil police secretary Felipe Curi meanwhile alleged the bodies displayed in the street were in their underwear because they had been stripped by residents of the "camouflage clothing, vests, and weapons" they had on them.

But angry residents accused the police of summary killings.

"There are people who have been executed, many of them shot in the back of the head, shot in the back. This cannot be considered public safety," said Raull Santiago, a 36-year-old resident and activist.

Lula said the federal government had been unaware of the operation.

"The president is horrified by the number of fatal incidents and was surprised that an operation of this scale was set up without the knowledge of the federal government," Justice Minister Ricardo Lewandowski said.

UN chief Antonio Guterres was "greatly concerned" by the number of casualties, his spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said it was "horrified" and called for "swift investigations."

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Last updated: 2025-10-30 HKT 06:23