May 7 (UPI) -- An alligator attacked and killed a woman while she was canoeing with her husband in Florida's Lake Kissimmee State Park on Tuesday afternoon.
The woman was on Lake Kissimmee near the mouth of Tiger Creek in Florida's Polk County when the alligator attacked at about 4 p.m. EDT, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
The woman's husband tried to fight off the gator but was unsuccessful.
It's unclear if the woman was in the same canoe as her husband or in a separate canoe when the alligator attacked.
Related
The FWC received a call about the attack shortly after 4 p.m. and requested help from the Polk County Sheriff's Office, The Ledger reported.
A rescue team was dispatched, including a helicopter crew, to search for the missing woman.
"The helicopter spotted the victim floating in the water and FWC officers recovered her from the water, where she was pronounced dead," an unnamed official told media.
The alligator is suspected of in March attacking another woman in the same location while she paddled in the Tiger Creek Canal.
That woman was bitten on her elbow and was airlifted to a nearby hospital for treatment.
A nuisance alligator trapper has been sent to the location to catch and remove the offending alligator.
Lake Kissimmee State Park is located about 60 miles south of Orlando.
Alligator attacks on humans are relatively rare, and deaths are more infrequent.
Tuesday's attack raised to 491 the number of reported alligator attacks and the 28th fatality in Florida since 1948, according to FWC records as reported by the Palm Beach Post.
Including Tuesday's attack, 315 are categorized as "major," which occurs when medical care is required to treat injuries caused by an alligator attack.
Most alligator attacks are triggered by risky human behavior, while in areas where alligators live, including swimming in waters occupied by alligators or while walking a dog along a canal that contains alligators, according to a University of Florida report.
Florida police in September 2023 found a woman's remains still in the jaws of an alligator near Tampa Bay.
A homeless man in June lost an arm that was amputated at the elbow after an alligator attacked while he was swimming in Lake Monroe during the overnight hours in Florida's Seminole County.
Further west in Houston, police shot and killed an alligator they found taking bites from the remains of a dead missing woman for whom they had been searching in May 2024.
