Two-Year-Old’s Body Recovered After ‘Rare’ Alligator Attack

The body of a two-year-old boy has been recovered 'intact', 16 hours after the child was dragged into the water by an alligator at a Florida holiday resort. All beaches at Disney's Orlando resorts have been closed following the tragic death of Lane Graves, from Elkhorn, Nebraska at the Seven Seas Lagoon, near Disney’s five-star Grand Floridian Resort & Spa. As guests at the hotel enjoyed an open-air movie, the child was playing in the shallow water with his sister (4) under the supervision of their parents, Melissa and Matt Graves when the animal attacked. Ankle-deep water Jeff Williamson, spokesman for the Orange County sheriff’s office, told The Guardian:

“He was about a foot in, maybe ankle-deep or a little higher,” “There’s a sign there that says no swimming. There’s no indication he was doing that, but he was at the edge of the water and this freakish incident takes place in which a gator comes along and latches on to this poor child. “The father was very close by. He heard what sounded like a splash, he turned, he thought the splash was something innocent, but of course there was nothing innocent. He saw his child in the mouth of the gator. He ran to get the child out of the gator’s mouth and wrestled with the gator but was not successful. The gator was able to get the child away from the father and disappear into the water."

A fifty-strong rescue team combed the shore for the child using sonar equipment, eventually locating and recovering his body on Wednesday evening. Attacks are rare Despite the fact that more than one million alligators live in Florida's swamps, ponds and lagoons, this is the first alligator fatality at Disney in 45 years. Disney employs a team of wildlife experts to manage and monitor the animals and the tram removes any alligators that appear to be troublesome. James Perran Ross, a retired associate scientist of wildlife ecology and conservation at the University of Florida told Live Science that alligators are more active in warm weather, especially during the hot summer months, and at night. Five alligators from the area were euthanized as part of the search for Lane, but officials are treating it as an isolated incident. Main image: Lane Graves, Orange County Sheriff's Office