Alligator bites off swimmer's arm

LONGWOOD, Fla. — An alligator attacked a woman swimming in a river Saturday near Orlando, biting off her arm below the shoulder, witnesses said.

The attack happened on the Wekiva River near Wekiva Island, where businesses rent out canoes about 15 miles northwest of Orlando. When nearby kayakers realized that the woman, who appeared to be in her late 30s or early 40s, was being attacked, they started hitting the alligator with their paddles.

"We see the jaws just chomp down on her arm, and it starts spinning around, pulls her underwater, goes back up," canoeist Jakob Frick of Orlando told the Orlando Sentinel. "She's just screaming."

He and his friends already had seen a few alligators mostly resting near the river's banks, he said. They had called out to tell the woman to get out of the water before the attack occurred.

The woman, whose name has not been released, was transported to an area hospital. Her condition was not immediately available.

Alligator attacks in the state resulted in seven major bites in 2013, the most recent year for which data is available, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, which keeps track of the attacks. Five other attacks resulted in minor bites; the most recent fatal attack on humans in the state was 2007.

Officials commission and Seminole County Sheriff's Office were still on the scene Saturday evening.

Related: