An 85-year-old woman was killed by an 11ft alligator while she walked her dog at a retirement village on Florida’s Atlantic Coast, officials said on Tuesday.
The woman was walking beside a canal in Spanish Lakes Fairway near Fort Pierce on Monday afternoon, when the huge creature attacked her dog, St Lucie Sheriff Ken Mascara said.
The woman’s name has not been released.
Officials said the dog survived the attack, but its condition was not immediately known.
A trapper from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) later tracked down the alligator, and it was removed from the scene by truck.
“FWC is in charge of the investigation, however we assisted with a helicopter and manpower,” Mr Mascara said.
Fatal alligator attacks are rare, but do happen in the US.
In 2016, two-year-old Lane Graves from Nebraska was killed by alligator while on a family holiday at Walt Disney World, in Orlando, Florida.
Since then, hundreds of alligators have been relocated from the area.
According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, between 1948 and 2021 there have been 442 unprovoked alligator bites on humans, including 26 fatalities.
The chances of a person in Florida being injured in an unprovoked alligator attack is about one in 3.1 million, according to the commission.
Once on the endangered species list, the alligator has recovered to the point that wildlife officials estimate the Florida population at more than 1.3 million animals.
Officials warn people to be careful around bodies of water, as well as against feeding alligators.
“Although alligators can move quickly on land, they are not well adapted for capturing prey out of the water,” the agency’s website said.
“However, they can lunge at prey within a few feet of the shoreline.”
Fort Pierce is around 70 miles north of West Palm Beach.
