A snorkeler narrowly escaped death when an alligator bit her on the head at a beauty spot in Florida.
Pictures show how lucky Marissa Carr was as she miraculously was able to swim away and exit the water without serious injury.
Her friend Shane witnessed her head clamped inside the nine-foot beast’s mouth – but Marissa believes it “didn’t get a good grip”.
She told Fox35: “I ripped the mask off and I turn and see the two little eyes sticking out of the water.
“It didn’t hurt bad in the moment. And then like, as I was running back and like, I saw what it was, that’s when it started hurting. I was like, my forehead hurts really bad and my neck isn’t like so much pain.
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The disturbing incident unfolded at the popular Alexander Springs Recreation Area in Ocala.
Friend Shane added: “I just heard a rush of water and I turned around to make sure she was OK.
“And I just saw the gator. I saw her head in its mouth.”
Marissa said that the attack happened so fast, she wasn’t aware that she’d been bitten until long after the fact — but she credited her snorkeling face mask with saving her from a worse fate.
She explained: “Sounds bad, but it biting my head is probably the best place that it could have been because like, if it would have got my arm and that it would have got a better grip on my arm and I could have lost my arm or just like my life in general.
“So like, I think the head he didn’t get a good grip of it. So I think I’m genuinely just really, really lucky.”
This is the second alligator incident in the area in a week — on November 1, a 79-year-old man had reported that he’d “bumped” into an alligator, but id unharmed.
Alexander Springs briefly closed while the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission sent out a trapper to catch, and remove, the offending critter from the area, but it has since reopened.