Boy, 12, fights off alligator

A 12-year-old boy escaped serious injury after being attacked by an alligator in a lake in Florida.

Malcolm Locke punched the reptile after he was dragged underwater during the attack and then managed to swim ashore.

Malcolm was attacked while swimming in Lake Diana, near his grandmother’s house just north of Orlando.

He saw the alligator’s tail first, he said. “It was coming right at me,” he said.

Malcolm, who is 5 feet 4 inches tall, tried to swim away, but the alligator, which was about six feet long, attacked his head and pulled him under water.

“It took a bite out of my head and a big chunk out of my ear,” Malcolm said.

After he punched the alligator, “it just squirmed away”, he said. He swam to shore, and a neighbour drove him to a hospital.

A trapper was sent to the lake to remove the alligator. The boy’s mother, Misty Warren, said the family had seen alligators in the area before, but none had ever bothered them.

The best thing to do during an alligator attack is struggle, make noise and create confusion, said Joy Hill, a spokeswoman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

“Malcolm did the right thing,” Hill said. “He fought the alligator and it let him go.”