Florida woman swimming in river killed in rare alligator attack at state forest

Officials say 31-year-old woman’s arm was severed in attack at a river in Seminole county’s Little Big Econ forest

A woman swimming in a Florida river was killed recently in a rare alligator attack that severed one of her arms, state officials said.

The deadly attack took place at Seminole county’s Little Big Econ state forest, about 25 miles north-east of Orlando, on Sunday as the 31-year-old victim was in the Econlockhatchee River.

A recording of a 911 call obtained by Orlando’s NBC News affiliate Wesh revealed the severity of the attack, which took place in lower than usual water because of a lengthy drought in Florida.

“Both her arms are dislocated – off basically,” the caller said. “One arm is completely off.”

The Florida fish and wildlife conservation commission (FWC) said at a briefing on Monday that it was an “incredibly tragic incident” witnessed by the woman’s boyfriend, who tried desperately to free her.

“He was trying to get her from the alligator’s mouth,” FWC public information officer Chad Weber said. “On the way to the hospital, she did pass away from her injuries.”

Weber said authorities removed and euthanized two alligators, respectively 12ft and 13ft in length, from the river, which were sent for DNA testing.

“We offer our condolences to this young lady’s family,” he said, adding that she would not be publicly identified until all her relatives were informed.

Weber said the woman was from Orlando. “They were hiking and they just stopped to swim,” he said. “It doesn’t seem they were doing anything malicious. They were in approximately 3ft of water.”

Attacks on humans are rare in Florida, according to the FWC, which collates reports of encounters with the state’s estimated 1.3 million alligators. In 2022, the commission reported an average of about eight unprovoked alligator bites annually – and only 26 fatalities since 1948.

Earlier in June was the 10th anniversary of one of the most prominent such attacks, the death of a two-year-old boy, Lane Graves, who was snatched by an alligator and drowned while he was on holiday with his family at Walt Disney World resort near Orlando.

The toddler was playing at Seven Seas Lagoon, an artificial lake at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort. The company erected warning signs and assessed safety protocols after the tragedy.

Sunday’s attack came 24 hours after a boy fishing with his father was bitten on the hand by an alligator about 65 miles west at Nelson’s Fish Camp in Marion county. The boy, who was not from Florida, was not seriously hurt – and an 8ft 7in alligator was removed from the water and killed, FWC said.

A week earlier, an 8ft 3in alligator was removed from the Rainbow river in Dunnellon after it bit a man who was snorkeling. The victim was discharged from a hospital after treatment.

Weber said anybody close to water in Florida needed to be mindful of the presence of alligators and the dangers posed by them.

“We have alligators in all 67 counties,” he said. “Every body of water could have the potential to have an alligator.

He said it would take some time for the investigation into Sunday’s fatality to be completed, adding that there were “any number of reasons” why it occurred.

“With the low water levels that we have, we are coming into the end of mating season,” he said. “The alligators become very territorial. It’s really hard to pinpoint what the exact reason was.”