A 31-year-old Florida woman died after an alligator bit off one of her arms and mauled the other at a state park near Orlando, authorities and a 911 call revealed Monday.
The victim had been hiking with her boyfriend and her best friend Sunday in Little Big Eco State Forest when they waded into the Econlockhatchee River to cool off, said Grant Eller, a lieutenant with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
They were kneeling in 3-foot-deep water when the alligator suddenly attacked around 1:30 p.m. and bit her arms, Eller said.
The victim was later identified as Orlando resident Brittany Clark, wildlife officials said.
During the attack, Clark’s boyfriend was still “trying to get her arms away from the alligator’s mouth” when he called 911 for help, Eller said.
In a recording of the 911 call obtained by NBC News, screams and crying can be heard in the background as what sounds like a female on the phone line tells the emergency dispatcher, “OK, both her arms, both her arms, both her arms are off, like, basically.”
The dispatcher tells her that help is on the way and asks, “Does she still have her arms attached to her?”
“One of them is, like, very hanging on [by a] thread, and the other was off,” the female on the phone replies.
When the dispatcher asks again where the other arm is, the female on the phone answers, “Gone.”
Then there is more screaming as the two friends, carrying the mortally wounded Clark, try to get the attention of the arriving rescue workers.
The victim, who worked as a bulldozer operator, “was such an amazing and caring person and didn’t deserve to go out in such a way,” boyfriend Chance Allison said in a text message Tuesday to NBC News.
Clark was “the strongest and most outgoing person” Allison said he’s ever known.
The victim “loved going out on the water every chance she could” and never “in a million years would we have seen this nightmare come about,” according to Allison.
Clark died before rescue workers could get her to a hospital, officials said.
“The FWC extends its deepest sympathies to the victim’s family and loved ones,” according to an agency statement. “Our thoughts are with you during this difficult time.”
Meanwhile, Seminole County sheriff’s deputies and a professional alligator trapper have “harvested” two alligators that were spotted near the scene, Eller said.
One of them was 13 feet long; the other was 12 feet long. Their DNA has been sent to a state lab to determine which one attacked the woman.
Eller said he couldn’t say what caused the alligator to attack. But he said it’s the end of the mating season, “and alligators are very territorial this time of year.”
In addition, he said, because of the statewide drought, water levels are very low.
The attack happened near the Barr Street Trailhead, which remained closed off Monday.
Nancy Palmer, who regularly hikes the trail with her husband, Rodney, pointed to the alligator warning signs.
“There’s a place where a female gator hangs out to lay her eggs ... and most people that come out here very often know that she could be there, and so keep your eyes open and don’t get in the water,” Palmer told NBC affiliate WESH.
Serious injuries caused by alligators are rare in Florida, according to the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
But this was the third reported alligator attack in the past seven days and the second in the past 24 hours in Central Florida, WESH reported.
And on Monday, the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission was investigating reports that an alligator bit a boy who had been fishing in Marion County.
“There are alligators in all 67 Florida counties,” Eller said. “There are risks when you swim in Florida.”
