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Man pulled from alligator's jaw
30/11/2006 10:26 - (SA)
Miami - Four Florida sheriff's deputies jumped into a dark lake and pulled a man from the jaws of an alligator early on Wednesday, authorities said.
The man lost his left arm and had a broken right arm and
major trauma to his left leg, Polk County sheriff Grady Judd
said. He was hospitalised in critical condition.
Several callers reported hearing screams for help at about 04:00 from central Florida's Lake Parker and deputies arrived to find the man in the alligator's grasp, the sheriff said in a news release.
Four deputies waded through waist-deep mud, wrestled the
man free and pulled him about 40 metres back to shore
to a waiting ambulance, Judd said.
"The very dark conditions and risk of injuring the victim
made shooting the alligator impossible," the sheriff said.
It was unclear whether the victim, 45-year-old Adrian
Apgar, had gone swimming or if he was pulled in from the bank
by the alligator.
Wildlife officials were searching the lake for the gator, whose size was not immediately known.
"Obviously it was big enough to do some pretty serious
damage," sheriff's spokesperson Donna Wood said.
Alligators are found throughout Florida and have been blamed for about 275 attacks on humans, fewer than two dozen of them fatal, since the state began keeping records in 1948.
- Reuters
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