By Brendan Cole
Senior Reporter
0
Share
Newsweek is a Trust Project member
See more of our trusted coverage when you search.Prefer Newsweek on Googleto see more of our trusted coverage when you search.
Witnesses have described the terrifying moment when a woman was bitten by an alligator while she was out swimming. Nichole Tillman was at Key Lake Wilderness Park in Florida when she was attacked by the gator believed to be longer than eight feet.
Dave Nygard told ABC News: "We're hanging out about waist to chest deep in the lake, next thing you know a girl starts screaming and luckily a couple guys reacted and grab her.
"The next thing you know we pull her out and her side and her thigh were open. So then about 30 seconds later I see a gator head pop up. It was every bit of eight foot."
Read More on U.S.
...
Around a dozen people who were swimming in the lake at the time grabbed towels and shirts, wrapped her side and leg and rushed her to safety.
The victim was taken to an all-terrain vehicle that was driven to a helicopter and she was airlifted to hospital. She is being treated for "significant" but not "life-threatening" injuries, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said. A trapper later removed the alligator from the river.
"I mean, it's scary. Just thankful a little kid wasn't in the lake at the time, because more or less the gator probably would've gotten the kid," Nygard added.
Brevard County Fire District Chief Thomas Uzel said: "We have a female who was allegedly bit by an alligator. She was out in the woods, swimming in a lake, from what we understand. She was classified as a trauma alert."
Wildlife agency spokesman Chad Weber warned that people should keep an eye out for alligators in or near any body of water and that they were more active of a threat during the spring and summer, WCTV reported.
Last August, a woman was killed by an alligator in Hilton Head, South Carolina, when she tried to save her dog from attack. Two months prior, a woman in Florida walking her dogs died after she was pulled into the water by an alligator.
In December, a man was seriously injured when he was bitten by an alligator in Lakeland, Florida. Back in June 2016, a 2-year-old boy died after an alligator pulled him into a lagoon near a Walt Disney World hotel.
View 0 Comments
Submit Correction
View Editorial & AI Guidelines