Authorities say when they arrived on the scene, the alligator was guarding the unresponsive woman and stopping personnel from being able to reach her.
A South Carolina woman was killed after being attacked by an alligator while out walking her dog on the Fourth of July, officials said.
Authorities with the Beaufort County Sheriff’s office responded to a report of a possible alligator attack on Tuesday to find a 69-year-old woman unresponsive near the edge of a lagoon, the sheriff’s office said.
Authorities attempted to rescue the woman but an alligator was guarding her and stopping personnel from being able to reach her, the sheriff’s office said.
The alligator was able to be removed from the area and officials recovered the woman's body. Her remains were turned over to the Beaufort County Coroner’s office, which will perform an autopsy on the woman, according to the release.
The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources (SC DNR) also responded to the scene and said that the woman was walking her dog near the lagoon when the alligator attacked her, the department said in a tweet.
The male alligator, which was more than 9-feet long, was euthanized following the tragic incident, said the SC DNR.
This was the second fatal alligator attack in the area in less than a year, officials said. The last attack was in August, when an 88-year-old woman was attacked near her home.
