An elderly woman was killed after she fell into a lake off a golf course in Florida and was attacked by two alligators, authorities said.
The incident happened just before 8 p.m. Friday at the Boca Royale Golf and Country Club in Englewood, about 30 miles south of Sarasota.
The woman fell into a lake along a field near her home “and was struggling to stay afloat,” the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.
Boca Royale Golf and Country Club in Englewood, Florida, is seen here in a May 2022 Google Maps Street View image.
Google Maps Street View
“While in the water, two alligators were seen near the victim and ended up grabbing her while she was in the water,” the sheriff’s office said.
The woman, who has not been identified by authorities, was pronounced dead at the scene.
An alligator trapper with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission responded and removed the alligators as part of the investigation, the sheriff’s office said.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said an 8′ 10″ alligator and a 7′ 7″ alligator seen near the lake have been removed. The agency said it is not known at this time whether alligators were involved in the incident, but that it does not plan to remove additional alligators from the area at this time.
“FWC and the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office will work collaboratively on this investigation until the cause of death is determined by the Sarasota County Medical Examiner’s Office,” the agency said in a statement.
The Sheriff’s Office did not release any further information during the investigation.
Boca Royale Golf and Country Club told ABC News it had no comment at this time.
The country club is located in a private 1,000-acre gated community that includes lakes and nature preserves, according to its website.
Fatal alligator bites are rare. From 1948 to 2021, Florida reported 442 unprovoked alligator bite incidents, 26 of which resulted in death, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Over the past 10 years, the state has had eight unprovoked bites a year that require medical treatment, the agency said.
The chance of someone being seriously injured during an unprovoked alligator incident in Florida is approximately one in 3.1 million, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
A man believed to be looking for a Frisbee in a lake was killed in a suspected alligator attack in late May in Largo, a city in the Tampa Bay area, police said.
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