Florida alligator killed after woman's body found in jaws

Victim identified but manner and cause of death has not been released

Alligators are common in the south-eastern US, especially Florida. Getty Images / AFP

Authorities in Florida have killed an alligator that was found with a woman's body in its jaws.

It remained unclear on Sunday if the woman, 41-year-old Sabrina Peckham, had been attacked by the large reptile or if it had taken her body after she had died.

Police said they had responded to a report of a body seen in the creek in Largo, Florida, and that the four-metre male alligator was “humanely killed” on Friday.

Officers identified the body on Saturday but said “the manner and cause of death is pending,” and that the investigation was continuing.

Witness Jamarcus Bullard told US media that he saw a large alligator and a body in the creek and ran to a nearby fire station to report it.

“I threw a rock at the gator, just to see if it was really a gator,” Mr Bullard told WFLA-TV, an NBC News affiliate, on Friday.

“It pulled the body, like it was holding on to the lower part of the torso, and just pulled it under the water.”

Mr Bullard said the alligator put up a strong fight against authorities.

“They put a rope around its neck and put it on a pulley of a lorry,” he said. “They were reeling it in, but it started to pull the lorry into the water.

“They got this long stick thing, pulled the head out of the water, then they shot it, and once they reeled it all the way out, they stretched it out and measured it, 13 feet long, and they shot it again,” Mr Bullard said.

Alligators are common in the south-eastern US, especially in Florida.

In July, a 69-year-old woman was killed by an alligator near a lagoon in South Carolina, with police saying the animal had guarded her body and kept rescuers back.