A woman survived being bitten in the head by a nine-foot monster while snorkeling at Alexander Springs Recreation Area in the latest Florida alligator attack video.
Marissa Carr and her friend Shane were snorkeling and swimming in the Ocala National Forest, when the alligator bit her face.
“I just heard a rush of water and I turned around to make sure she was OK. And I just saw the gator,” Shane said about the incident. “I saw her head in its mouth.”
Carr recalled the shock of the attack. “I ripped the mask off and I turn and see the two little eyes sticking out of the water,” she added.
Watch the latest Florida alligator attack video
Luckily for the snorkeler, she was wearing a full-face snorkeling mask that took the brunt of the alligator’s bite.
“Sounds bad, but it biting my head is probably the best place that it could have bitten, if it would have got my arm and that it would have got a better grip on my arm and I could have lost my arm or just like my life in general,” she told Fox 35 Orlando.
“So like, I think the head he didn’t get a good grip of it. So I think I’m genuinely just really, really lucky,” Carr explained.
Photos captured Carr bleeding from her head while the alligator remained in the vicinity.
Carr was clearly in shock after the attack, as she reported feeling very little pain in the immediate aftermath, but the feeling intensified as the day went on.
Victim explains her wounds in Florida alligator attack video
“It didn’t hurt bad in the moment. And then like, as I was running back and like, I saw what it was, that’s when it started hurting,” she told the outlet.
“I was like, my forehead hurts really bad and my neck isn’t like so much pain.”
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission promptly responded to the incident, as Carr was rushed to a nearby hospital.
The 9-foot-long alligator was subsequently removed from the waters by a nuisance alligator trapper.
Shockingly, Carr wasn’t the first person to encounter an alligator at the swimming hole last week.
The U.S. Forest Service’s Florida office announced that the Alexander Springs swimming area had been temporarily closed last Wednesday, but did not give a reason why.
Fox 35 said that the man was swimming and bumped into a gator, but was not bitten.
U.S. Forest Service explains closure after Florida alligator attack video goes viral
The government agency once again announced that the swimming spot, which is the only place in Ocala National Forest where scuba diving is allowed, had been shut down and reopened to the public after Carr’s attack.
“The temporary closure was necessary for public safety following an alligator-related incident this morning,” the U.S. Forest Service wrote on Sunday.
“The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission immediately responded and completed their investigation,” the post continued.
“No alligators were harmed or removed from the area, as result of this investigation.”
Carr said that she doesn’t blame the gator for attacking her, and won’t let it keep her out of the water either.
