{"id":324628,"date":"2026-06-30T13:41:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T13:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/324628\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T13:41:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T13:41:08","slug":"florida-woman-swimming-in-river-killed-in-rare-alligator-attack-at-state-forest-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/324628\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida woman swimming in river killed in rare alligator attack at state forest | Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

The deadly attack took place at Seminole county\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

A recording of a 911 call<\/a> obtained by Orlando\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth her arms are dislocated \u2013 off basically,\u201d the caller said. \u201cOne arm is completely off.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Florida<\/a> fish and wildlife conservation commission (FWC) said at a briefing on Monday that it was an \u201cincredibly tragic incident\u201d witnessed by the woman\u2019s boyfriend, who tried desperately to free her.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was trying to get her from the alligator\u2019s mouth,\u201d FWC public information officer Chad Weber said. \u201cOn the way to the hospital, she did pass away from her injuries.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\u201cWe offer our condolences to this young lady\u2019s family,\u201d he said, adding that she would not be publicly identified until all her relatives were informed.<\/p>\n

Weber said the woman was from Orlando. \u201cThey were hiking and they just stopped to swim,\u201d he said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t seem they were doing anything malicious. They were in approximately 3ft of water.\u201d<\/p>\n

Attacks on humans are rare in Florida, according to the FWC, which collates reports of encounters with the state\u2019s estimated 1.3 million alligators. In 2022, the commission reported an average of about eight unprovoked alligator bites annually \u2013 and only 26 fatalities<\/a> since 1948.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The toddler was playing at Seven Seas Lagoon, an artificial lake at Disney\u2019s Grand Floridian Resort. The company erected warning signs<\/a> and assessed safety protocols after the tragedy.<\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s attack came 24 hours after a boy fishing with his father was bitten on the hand<\/a> by an alligator about 65 miles west at Nelson\u2019s Fish Camp in Marion county. The boy, who was not from Florida, was not seriously hurt \u2013 and an 8ft 7in alligator was removed from the water and killed, FWC said.<\/p>\n

A week earlier, an 8ft 3in alligator<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

Weber said anybody close to water in Florida needed to be mindful of the presence of alligators and the dangers posed by them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have alligators in all 67 counties,\u201d he said. \u201cEvery body of water could have the potential to have an alligator.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is some risk when you swim.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said it would take some time for the investigation into Sunday\u2019s fatality to be completed, adding that there were \u201cany number of reasons\u201d why it occurred.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the low water levels that we have, we are coming into the end of mating season,\u201d he said. \u201cThe alligators become very territorial. It\u2019s really hard to pinpoint what the exact reason was.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A woman swimming in a Florida river was killed recently in a rare alligator attack that severed one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324629,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-324628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324628\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}