Alligator kills Florida jogger near canal

Miami: An alligator grabbed and killed a Florida woman who disappeared while jogging near a canal, a medical examiner determined on Thursday.

Construction workers on Wednesday found the woman's dismembered body floating in a canal in Sunrise, a northwest suburb of Fort Lauderdale. An autopsy showed she died of bleeding and shock from alligator bites.

"The alligator attacked her and basically amputated her arms, bit her on the leg and back and pulled her into the water," said Dr. Joshua Perper, the Broward County medical examiner, who performed the autopsy.

"She died extremely fast. By the time she was pulled into the water, she was already dead."

Perper said the woman, 28-year-old Yovy Suarez Jimenez, had been very close to the canal's edge when the alligator bit her, because her body showed no signs of having been dragged.

No witnesses

Relatives said the victim had gone jogging on Tuesday evening along a bicycle path near the canal. Wildlife officers said no one saw the attack.

"The way it happened, we just don't know," said Dani Moschella, a spokeswoman for the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission,

Wildlife officers and commercial trappers were still trying to find the alligator, which was estimated to be 2.4 to 3 metres long, based on the woman's injuries. If captured, it will be killed, they said.

Alligator attacks are relatively rare. Jimenez's death was the 18th fatal attack in Florida since the 1940s.