Emma Rosemurgey
A teen has recalled the horrifying moment playing with friends turned to disaster when an alligator grabbed his leg and attempted to pull him back into a lake.
Gabriel Klimis, from Florida, had been playing with pals at a creek near Winter Springs, Orlando on Tuesday, 20 June, when the alligator attacked.
Speaking to Fox 35, the 13-year-old said that he had just jumped off a rope from a bridge crossing over Howell Creek, with one foot on the sand.
"And then the gator got my other one and pulled me back." he added.
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The alligator then firmly attached itself to the boy's leg as he gripped tightly onto a stick on the shore to prevent him being pulled into the water.
"I knew that if he didn't let go, there was no getting him off because his jaw was so tied on. There's no getting out of that," he recalled.
Fortunately, thanks to his quick thinking, Klimis was able to free himself from the gator's jaw, by hitting the animal and causing it to loosen its grip.
He said: "He kept pulling, so then I just tried to hit him and then he let go and then I ran up as fast as I could."
Klimis then ran to the nearest house and called his mother, Alison Klimis, who was left in 'complete shock' and 'terror' over the events.
The teen, however, remained calm and told the 911 dispatcher: "Yeah I can walk, I just got bit by a gator. It just stings a bit but I'm good."
When asked about the wound, Klinis explained that it wasn't 'bleeding too bad' but that his skin was 'like open pretty good'.
The teen was taken to hospital where doctors stitched up his wound, but he hasn't been deterred by the whole incident.
He said: "It's not going to stop me from swimming somewhere else, like in a different creek or something, with my friends and having fun."
His mum was 'grateful' that her son was able to make out of the attack largely unscathed.
"In the end, I'm just blessed, grateful, thankful that the angels were watching over him and God was there because I know without that, my son could definitely be gone," she told the station.
Following the attack, an alligator was captured and killed by a nuisance trapper in Howell Springs, however, there's no way of knowing whether it is the same one that bit Klimisr.