Florida boy, 13, recounts terrifying gator attack: ‘He kept pulling’

When an alligator clamped its jaws down on 13-year-old Gabriel Klimis’ legs, he said he knew that if the beast chose to hang on, he could have lost his leg or worse.

“Once he grabbed on, I knew that if he didn’t let go, there was no getting him off because his jaw was so tied on. There’s no getting out of that,” Gabriel told Fox 35 on Friday.

The teenager and his friends had been swimming at the Howell Creek Trestle in Winter Springs, Florida on Tuesday when the gator bit his right leg while he was getting out of the water with one foot already on shore.

“One of my feet was on the sand and then the gator got my other one and then pulled me back,” Gabriel said.

To stop the gator from pulling him into the water, he grabbed onto a stick on land and started bashing the animal on the head.

“He kept pulling, so then I just try to hit him … and then he let go … and then I ran up as fast as I could,” Gabriel told the outlet.

He sprinted to the nearest house for help and immediately called his mom, Allison Klimis, who was terrified at the news.

“Complete shock. Terror, of course. Super scared. I told him to call 911, and I would be right there,” she said.

The teenager kept his cool when he spoke with a 911 dispatcher and calmly said that he was OK: “I can walk and I can stand. I’m fine, it just stings a little, but I’m good.”

Gabriel was transported by EMTs to a hospital where he received stitches for the wound.

He and his mother are thankful that he got away from a potentially deadly situation with what essentially amounts to just a scratch.

“In the end, I’m just blessed, grateful, thankful that the angels were watching over him and God was there because I know without that, my son could definitely be gone,” the frightened mother said.

Gabriel said he’s “learned his lesson,” but said the attack won’t keep him from swimming.

An alligator was killed in the creek on Thursday by a nuisance trapper, but it’s unclear if it was the same one that bit Gabriel, the family said.