ワニに襲われ８５歳女性死亡　犬の散歩中　米フロリダ州

【マイアミＡＦＰ＝時事】米南部フロリダ州フォートピアスの高齢者居住地区で２１日、８５歳の女性が犬の散歩中、全長３メートルのワニに湖に引きずり込まれて死亡した。目撃していた女性が証言した。（写真は、捕獲されたワニを運ぶ当局者ら。地元保安官事務所の提供動画より）
　友人のキャロルさん（７７）は地元テレビ局ＷＰＢＦに「彼女が水中から顔を出したので、足こぎボートに向かって泳いでと声を掛けたが、『だめ、ワニにかまれた』と返ってきた」と説明した。
　救急隊に連絡した後、棒を手にして女性を助けようとしたが「姿はもうなかった」と話している。
　フロリダ魚類・野生生物保護委員会は米メディアに対し、女性は湖から引き揚げられたが、けがが原因で死亡したと明らかにした。女性が連れていた犬は助かったという。
　その後、保安官事務所の協力でワニは捕獲された。関係者によれば、ワニの体重は２７０～３２０キロ。
　フロリダ州にはワニが多いが、フロリダ魚類・野生生物保護委員会によれば、ワニにかまれる死亡事故はまれで、１９４８～２０２１年に２６件しか起きていない。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2023/02/22-20:52）

A helpless neighbor has described watching in horror as an elderly woman was killed by an alligator while walking her dog in a retirement community in the southern US state of Florida.
The neighbor, identified only as Carol, said she saw the woman, who has not been named, being dragged into water by the 10-foot (three-meter) reptile during an attack at the Spanish Lakes Fairways community in Fort Pierce on Monday.
(I) just remember her coming up and you know... getting air, and I'm saying swim toward the, swim toward the paddle boat, and she says, 'I can't, the gator has me,' the woman told local TV station WPBF.
Carol, 77, called emergency services and grabbed a pole in hopes of helping her friend, the station reported.
I thought, well I'll put that out in the water and hook her or hit him, and -- she was not there anymore.
Helpless, Carol could only wait. I couldn't do anything. I couldn't get in the water.
The dog survived the attack, but the woman succumbed to her injuries, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) told US media.
A helicopter from the St Lucie County Sheriff's Office helped locate the gator in the lake, WPBF reported, and trappers later dragged it out.
He fought pretty good. Definitely fought pretty good, Nuisance Alligator Trapper Robert Lilly told WPBF.
Lilly said the creature weighed between 600 and 700 pounds (270 to 320 kilograms).
Our thoughts and deepest sympathies are with the family and friends of the victim, the FWC said in a statement, according to US media.
Alligators are commonly seen in Florida, crossing streets, sunning themselves on golf courses or lurking in its extensive waterways.
But serious injuries caused by them are rare, with the FWC website saying the likelihood is just one in 3.1 million for a Florida resident. From 1948 to 2021 just 26 bites resulted in human fatalities.
The victim was a widow, Carol said, describing her as quiet and kind.
She had many good friends here, and she loved her dog, she told WPBF.
I never woke up this Monday morning and thought I would be watching someone die.