A father and son canoe trip took a terrifying turn on Friday when the 6-year-old fell into the water and into the jaws of an eight-foot gator at the Loxahatchee Wildlife Refuge in Boynton Beach, FL reports Local 10.
"I heard these blood-curdling screams and I saw this gator that had his right arm in his jaw and I just freaked," father Joseph Welch told the news station. Watch the video above.
"He just swam to me and clamped my arm. He didn't wait for a second," six-year-old Joey said.
Dad then jumped into the water to rescue his son.
"I didn't want to play tug-of-war with the alligator and get his arm ripped off," he told WSVN 7. "So I started punching the alligator on top of the head as hard as I could."
The gator finally released Joey's arm after a good Samaritan jumped in to help, kicking the gator in its stomach, reports WSVN.
Miraculously, Joey only suffered minor injuries.
Local 10 reports that the gator was later killed by authorities due to its aggressive behavior.
Last summer, a Florida teen wasn't as lucky as Joey.
A 10-foot-alligator bit the arm off of Kaleb Langdale, 17, who was swimming in the Caloosahatchee River in Moore Haven, FL.
Describing the attack, he said he "knew I either got to lose this arm or I'm gonna die."
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