A hiker has tragically died after she was attacked by an alligator while cooling off in a river in Florida. The woman, 31, was out hiking with her boyfriend and best friend near Orlando on Sunday. While the woman was in the shallows of the Econlockhatchee River, a reptile locked its jaws around both her arms, ripping one off in front of her boyfriend, who was trying to rescue her from the situation as it was happening.
The woman’s partner called the emergency services, but the alligator had caused too much damage.
In a briefing, wildlife official Grant Eller, a lieutenant with Florida’s Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, said the attack took place at about 1.30 pm while the group had been kneeling in shallow waters of about three feet. Mr Eller said the unnamed woman’s boyfriend was “trying to get her arms away from the alligator’s mouth” when he called emergency services.
In the call recording, which was obtained by US publication NBC News, a woman can be heard describing the horror of the situation while the boyfriend can be heard screaming and crying.
On the call to the dispatcher, the woman said: “Ok, both her arms, both her arms, both her arms are off, like, basically.”
In response, the dispatcher said: “Does she still have her arms attached to her?”
The friend said: “One of them is, like, very hanging on [by a] thread, and the other was off.”
Mr Eller explained that the woman died before she could reach a hospital.
He declined to identify the victim of the alligator attack, as authorities were still attempting to get in touch with her family, who did not live in Florida.
With the help of a professional trapper, the Seminole County sheriff’s deputies explained they had “harvested” two alligators, which had been located near the scene of the attack. Both of the alligators are said to have been 13 and 12 feet long.
This horrifying attack comes following several that have taken place across central Florida in the last week alone, with the reptiles becoming particularly territorial at this time of year – after they’ve finished mating.