A nearly 8-foot-long alligator sent a 77-year-old Florida woman to the hospital over the weekend, according to WOFL.
The Florida Wildlife and Conservation Commission (FWC) responded to the community on Ellsworth Avenue in Bradenton around 6 p.m. Saturday (September 3). Officials say the reptile bit the elderly woman near a pond, and she was taken to a hospital. They didn't release any details about her injuries.
Neighbors told reporters they heard the victim screaming for help and rushed over to assist her. Good Samaritans screamed at the gator until it let go and ran back into the water.
"I lived here five years and I've never seen a gator come after anybody like that," wildlife photographer Gordon Silver said. "Usually they run the other way, even when you see him on the path around here crossing over from pond to pond. They see a human and they take off."
A witness kept an eye on the suspected alligator until a trapper arrived on the scene and removed it, according to the agency. FWC says they were "confident" they spotted the right gator since no other one fit the size and description in the area.
No word on the victim's condition as of Tuesday morning (September 6).
This is one of the latest alligator attacks to happen in the Sunshine State, and some have turned deadly. A pair of alligators killed an 88-year-old woman after she fell into a pond. A man was attacked by alligators while he was searching for frisbees at a park.