A 23-year-old man lost his arm Sunday after an alligator attacked him behind a bar in Florida, authorities said.
The man was attacked behind Banditos Bar, which is located near a pond in Port Charlotte, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said in a statement to the Fort Myers News-Press, part of the USA TODAY Network.
Charlotte County Fire and EMS received a call about the attack around 1:40 a.m., spokesman Todd Dunn told USA TODAY.
Responders treated the man with “an above-the-elbow amputation of his upper right extremity,” and airlifted him to Gulf Coast Hospital in Fort Myers by helicopter, Dunn said.
Witness saw man swimming towards shore after attack
Manny Hidalgo, a patron at another bar, told The Daily Sun that he heard the man screaming and went outside looking for him near the pond area.
“He was yelling and swimming toward the shoreline,” Hidalgo told the outlet. “I ran and dragged him up onto the sand. I was scared to get close to the water because it was dark out.”
Officials removed the 10.5-foot alligator from the property, the AP reported.
USA TODAY reached out to the FWC for more information.
Recent encounters with gators in Florida
Several alligator attacks are reported each year in Florida, but deaths are more uncommon.
Last month, an alligator bit off the leg of a 72-year-old man at a Florida RV resort in Titusville. And in March, a man was attacked by a 7-foot, 10-inch long, alligator at his doorstep in Daytona Beach.
According to a 2022 report from the FWC:
- In 2022, there were nine major and two minor alligator bites in Florida.
- In 2021, there were seven major and three minor alligator bites.
- In 2020, there were eight major and four minor bites.
- In 2019, there was one fatality, five major and five minor alligator bites.
- In 2018, there was one fatality, nine major alligator bites and one minor bite on people.
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Contributing: The Associated Press, Fort Myers News-Press