South Carolina woman dies in ‘alligator encounter’

A woman in South Carolina has died after an alligator attack, authorities said. 

Officers responded to a pond on Kiawah Island on Friday around 5 p.m. for a report of an “alligator encounter” with a woman, the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office said. 

The woman died, and officers fatally shot and retrieved the alligator, police said. 

The incident is under investigation, officials added. 

About 5p today, deputies responded to pond near Salt Cedar Ln, Kiawah Island, for report of alligator encounter w/ a woman. The woman has died. A deputy fatally shot and retrieved the gator. @SCDNR & coroner also responded. Incident is still under investigation. #chsnews

— ChasCoSheriff (@ChasCoSheriff) May 1, 2020

Authorities did not release the woman’s identity and did not say if they knew what she or the alligator were doing before the attack, NBC News reports. 

This is the third fatal alligator attack in South Carolina in the past four years, according to NBC News, which added that the state had never recorded a person killed by an alligator before those incidents.