THE heartbroken dad of a hiker mauled to death by an alligator has revealed the harrowing call he received in his daughter’s final moments.
Brittany Clark, 31, suffered catastrophic injuries when a 12ft alligator attacked her, tearing off both her arms during the savage mauling.
The horror unfolded as Brittany, her boyfriend Chance Allison, and roommate Jayden Hernandez were swimming in the Econlockhatchee River in Florida.
Her grieving dad Robert told The Post: “I received a call on Sunday from Brittany’s roommate Jayden and she was explaining as it was happening.
“They were trying to keep her alive and waiting for the authorities to show up.“
The 57-year-old semi-retired motorcycle technician said the family were already grieving the death of his mother Barbara, 80, on Thursday when he learnt of his daughter’s gruesome fate.
The alligator reportedly clamped its jaws around Brittany, leaving her with devastating injuries.
Chance desperately tried to fight off the beast, but was helpless to stop it removing her flailing limbs.
A chilling 911 call captured the horror of the attack, with one describing Brittany’s injuries as “horrible”, adding that “one of her arms is completely off and the other one is like attached barely.”
She was rushed to hospital but is believed to have died after losing a massive amount of blood.
Hernandez said the trio had joked about there being an alligator in the “murky” water they were standing in.
In a post on Facebook, he wrote: “There were air bubbles within our little triangle we made with our bodies in the water and I commented on how it might be a sneaky gator and Chance, Brittany’s boyfriend, swam right over it to show nothing was there and nothing was there.
“And just a few minutes later my bestfriend got attacked.”
A medical examiner’s report lay bare the final moments when the alligator pounced.
It reads: “While they were swimming an alligator grabbed [Brittany] by her arm and began the ‘death roll’.
“Her boyfriend Chance grabbed the alligator trying to get it to release her when it took them both underwater.”
Alligators and crocodiles often subdue their victims with a “death roll” – a violent technique that spins victims underwater until they drown.
The report adds: “Chance attempted to bring them both to shore when the alligator finally let go and CPR was started on shore by her boyfriend, and 911 was called.”
It comes during a string of alligator attacks across central Florida this week.
Just 24-hours earlier, a boy was bitten on the hand while fishing with his father, according to WESH.
Officials euthanised an 8ft alligator responsible for the attack.
A snorkeler was bitten in Rainbow River on June 21 – about 100 miles away from Sunday’s fatal mauling.
The river was temporarily closed before wildlife officials located and removed the predator.
Florida has recorded more than 450 gator attacks since 1948, resulting in only 30 fatalities.
