{"id":394125,"date":"2026-09-08T22:36:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T22:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/394125\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T22:36:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T22:36:09","slug":"child-rushed-to-hospital-after-being-savagely-attacked-by-alligator-in-florida-on-labor-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/394125\/","title":{"rendered":"Child rushed to hospital after being savagely attacked by alligator in Florida on Labor Day"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A child was hospitalized after being savagely attacked by an alligator while swimming in a Florida lake on Labor Day.<\/p>\n<p>The kid, whose age and sex were not released, was mauled on the arm and leg by the gator \u2014 which was estimated to be between 9 and 12 feet long, Hernando County Sheriff\u2019s Office revealed.<\/p>\n<p>The youngster was stranded on a sandbar in the Weeki Wachee Preserve with several other children Monday afternoon, and couldn\u2019t make it back to the mainland.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio:0.79980469;display:block\" decoding=\"async\"   data-modal-image=\"40710926\" width=\"472\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/weeki-wachee-fl-child-bitten-140159506.jpg\" alt=\"Law enforcement officers overlooking the Weeki Wachee Preserve.\" class=\"wp-image-40710926\"\/>A child was bitten by an approximately 9- to 12-foot alligator while swimming at the Weeki Wachee Preserve in Weeki Wachee, Florida, on Monday. Hernando County Fire Rescue<\/p>\n<p>They ultimately had to be rescued by Hernando County Fire Rescue \u2013 who used an airboat to retrieve them and also provided medical care.<\/p>\n<p>The hurt kid was rushed to Bayonet Point Hospital with non-life-threatening \u201cpuncture\u201d injuries, the county sheriff\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n<p>A licensed Florida wildlife trapper responded to the scene and placed traps in the hopes of capturing the beast responsible for the attack.<\/p>\n<p>Officials reiterated the warning for people to obey posted rules at waterways in the state and to exercise extreme caution.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\tStart your day with all you need to know\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"inline-module__cta\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMorning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDo not swim in areas where swimming is prohibited,\u201d the sheriff\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n<p>The Weeki Wachee Preserve spans over 11,200 acres in west-central Florida, and is located about 50 miles north of Tampa.<\/p>\n<p>Southwest Florida Water Management District says of the preserve on its website \u201cno swimming allowed in any of the lakes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) responded and is handling the investigation related to the alleged swimming violation, police said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A child was hospitalized after being savagely attacked by an alligator while swimming in a Florida lake on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394126,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[13925,28,30,29,59486,4278],"class_list":["post-394125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-alligators","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-freak-accidents","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394125","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=394125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}