Hiker dies after alligator rips her arm off while swimming in a river
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Up Next Previous Page Next Page The dad of a hiker who was killed by an alligator received a call from her friends as she lay dying on the riverbank. Brittany Clark, 31, died after wading into the Econlockhatchee River in Florida, US, to cool off while hiking with her best friend and boyfriend on Sunday.
The three were three feet deep in the water when an alligator bit her arms, tearing off one and catastrophically mauling the other. Her boyfriend Chance Allison tried to fight off the 12-foot crocodilian, but it snatched them both into a death roll, a technique used by the species to kill prey underwater by violently twisting.
Brittany Clark loved the outdoors and was an ‘amazing’ person (Picture: Facebook) He managed to free severely injured Clark, while the alligator fled with her arm. Screaming was heard in the background of the harrowing 911 call before Clark’s boyfriend and friend carried her to rescue workers.
Clark’s friend Jayden Hernandez called her dad, Robert, amid the frantic scene before help arrived for the fatally injured hiker. Robert told the Daily Mail: ‘She was having a hard time telling us what was going on.’ He said he ‘never got the opportunity’ to say goodbye to his daughter.
Allison called 911 for help around 1.30pm and told the operator: ‘Both her arms, both her arms, both her arms are off, like, basically.’ When asked to provide more detail, Allison added: ‘One of them is, like, very hanging on [by a] thread, and the other is… gone.’ Clark was pronounced dead before she reached the hospital for treatment.
The alligator did a death roll after biting Clark on the arms (Picture: Getty) Allison said his partner was ‘such an amazing and caring person and didn’t deserve to go out in such a way’. She loved going into the water ‘every chance she could’, and Allison said they could have never seen this nightmare coming.
It’s currently alligator mating season in Florida, and the creatures are known to be more aggressive during this time. The medical examiner’s report reads: ‘While they were swimming, an alligator grabbed [Brittany] by her arm and began the “death roll.”‘ This is a manoeuvre in which alligators grip hold of their prey and spin their body to kill them.
‘Her boyfriend, Chance, grabbed the alligator trying to get it to release her when it took them both underwater.’ Clark’s brother, Nick, told local news: ‘She was an amazing person; she was nice and helpful with anyone who needed any kind of help.’ Clark, from Orlando, loved the outdoors and often wakeboarded and dirtbiked in Florida.