A huge alligator chomped a Florida man’s hand off while he was fishing in a pond.
The victim was rushed to hospital following the attack on Sunday afternoon in Leesburg.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) estimated the gator’s length to be approximately nine feet (over 2.5 metres) in length.
Ron Priest, who saw the incident from his backyard, told TV station Fox 35 that “while the guy was on the ground, the gator got the guy in the hand, and the two rolled”.
Records of emergency calls of the incident show witnesses told authorities “there is a gator attacking a man in my backyard” and “hand is gone”.
Mr Priest said the fisherman was reeling in a fish when the animal snapped open its jaws and bit down on the man’s hand.
He continued: “The gator was after [the] fish, and what we don’t know is if the guy was trying to unhook the fish.”
Minutes later, help arrived at the scene and a helicopter airlifted the man to a hospital in Orlando.
FWC shot the “nuisance gator”, which is protocol for gators that attack humans.
The victim’s current condition has not been confirmed.
The FWC emphasised the importance of being careful around alligators, advising the public to back up if encountering one and to provide them with plenty of space.
In September homeless woman Sabrina Peckham, 41, was killed by a male alligator measuring nearly 14 feet in length, over four metres in length, in Florida.
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