Alligator bites off woman's arm

A woman lost an arm after being attacked by an alligator on a Florida holiday island which attracts thousands of British families every year.

It happened on Sanibel, off the Gulf Coast - an idyllic sunshine paradise famed for its natural beauty.

The 12ft reptile struck less than half a mile from the West Wind Inn, a hotel used by Virgin Holidays.

It pounced on landscape worker Janie Melsek as she was trimming a tree behind a home.

The 54-year-old was dragged into a pond before a local resident and police officers tore her from the animal's jaws.

'It was kind of a tug-of-war,' said the neighbour, Jim Anholt. 'The alligator had hold of her and just her face was showing.'

Mr Anholt held the woman's neck to help keep her head above water while the three officers battled to get her out.

The victim was freed after a five-minute struggle and later had to have part of her right arm amputated.

She was also severely bitten on her buttocks and thighs, but doctors told her family that they believe she will walk again. Yesterday, she remained in critical condition. Police shot the alligator dead after the incident on Wednesday and it took six men to lift it on to the banks of the pond. At 12ft long, it was unusually large, said Florida wildlife official Dave Jennings.

'I've caught plenty of alligators and that's a big alligator,' he added. 'We all know they are there and we respect them.'

He said most attacks are caused either by the animal being provoked, or because it has been fed snacks by visitors and lost its fear of humans.

The region has a specialist force of 20 alligator handlers, who regularly trap and relocate the reptiles or shoot them in an emergency. In the past year, several 'nuisance' alligators have

been captured and seven killed. 'By providing food to a gator, usually during a picnic lunch, misguided individuals train the animal to associate people with food and end up taming them,' said a spokesman for the force.

'This is a deadly combination that can have fatal consequences.'

The barrier island of Sanibel, a semi-wilderness just 12 miles long and four miles wide, is popular with Britons because of its beautiful beaches and powderwhite sand.

It is famous for the so-called Sanibel Stoop, in which shellgatherers reach down into the water to collect the island's 'treasure from the sea'.

Virgin Holidays describes the island, which is 180 miles from Miami, as 'so relaxed that a snail's pace is seen as unnecessarily hasty'.

Many British families arrive on fly-drive packages after spending a week in the Disney theme parks of Orlando.

But visitors are warned about the booming alligator population that lurks in the sprawling freshwater wetlands.

A local man was killed by one of the animals in 2001 while walking his dog along the banks of the Sanibel River, and tourists are warned not to swim in ponds and rivers or to retrieve golf balls from lakes.