WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGE. Summer Hinote has recalled the horrifying moment she was attacked by a 10-foot alligator – and revealed how she was eventually able to escape from the fearsome predator’s jaws
A 15-year-old girl has revealed how she successfully fought off a 10-foot alligator when it bit her on the leg and took her underwater.
Summer Hinote was attacked in Pond Creek, Florida – and she later spoke to a local news station about the horrifying incident.
The teenager said she was swimming when she “felt something brush up against me”. Then the alligator attacked and sunk its teeth into her leg.
She told FOX 35: “I just started punching it in the head as hard as I could. And he had let go and then grabbed me again. And the second time that he let go and grabbed me, he had drug me underneath the water. And he like shook my leg around.[sic]”
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Summer further revealed that at one point, the alligator let go of her just to get a better grip. “Whenever he let go, I had started running up. And I had gotten up out of the water,” she added.
She was eventually able to break free of the alligator’s control with a friend’s help. Summer suffered severe injuries to her leg – but thankfully it did not need to be amputated.
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It comes after a 14-year-old boy was killed after falling into a canal full of crocodiles in Mexico. Andres Alejandro Santana Hernandez was mauled to death by the vicious predators after taking a walk with his family in the waterway in Lazaro Cardenas on Mexico’s Pacific Coast.
Andres was walking along the path on July 18 when he fell into the canal, and tragically, before his parents could reach him to pull him back to safety, the crocodiles attacked – dragging him into the swamp and tearing into his body.
The rivers and canals in the area are a hotbed for crocodiles, which are responsible for dozens of deaths in the area each year.
It is believed Andres was attacked by a Morelet’s Crocodile, also known as the Mexican or Belize Crocodile, which usually grows up to three metres in length and can weigh around 400lbs. The species is known for its attacks as they are highly opportunistic predators, and will prey on practically anything they can overpower that comes into their territory.
Crocodiles in general are responsible for a large number of attacks on humans, with around 1,000 fatalities recorded around the world each year.
Andres was a local altar boy as well as a part of the local Cortazar Fire Department’s marching band. After news of his death broke, the Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish Church paid tribute to the teenager in a statement that read: “With deep sorrow, but with our hope placed in our Lord Jesus Christ, who has Risen and is the Lord of life, I earnestly ask you to join in prayer for the eternal rest of Andres Alejandro Santana Hernandez, altar server of the main parish, who has been called to the house of the Eternal Father.”