An alligator attacked and dragged a two-year-old boy into the water Tuesday night while he was playing on a beach near a [f500link]Disney[/f500link] resort in Orlando, police said.
A massive search was still underway Wednesday morning, with more than 50 law enforcement officers and wildlife scouring the lake for the boy, reports NBC.
The child was playing in the shallows of the lake with his father near Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa when the alligator — described as being between four and seven foot long — attacked.
“The child was playing in the water, just a foot or so into the water, and the alligator came up and attacked,” Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings said. “The father at some point struggled to try to get his son and was not successful.”
The boy and his family, who live in Nebraska, were on holiday at the resort.
“We’re not leaving until we recover the child,” Demings said, adding that a dive team, search helicopters, sonar equipment and an alligator trapper were all being deployed to help find the boy.
According to the state Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission records, at least 41 unprovoked “major” alligator attacks have occurred in Florida since 2010, with at least two deaths in 2015
