MIAMI, Florida (Reuters) -- Florida sheriff's deputies jumped into a dark lake and pulled a naked man from the jaws of an alligator early Wednesday, authorities said.
The man lost his left arm and had a broken right arm and major injuries to his left leg, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said. He was hospitalized in critical condition.
After several people reported hearing screams for help from central Florida's Lake Parker at about 4 a.m. ET, deputies arrived to find the man in the alligator's grasp, the sheriff said.
Four deputies waded through waist-deep mud, wrestled the man free and pulled him about 40 yards back to shore to a waiting ambulance, Judd said.
"He was totally naked," Judd said of the victim, identified as 45-year-old Adrian Apgar.
"He admitted that he'd been smoking crack cocaine. But still, it's a human life," Judd said at a news conference. "Our deputies don't ask questions, they respond and they save people."
It was unclear whether Apgar had gone swimming or if the creature had snatched him from the bank.
A 12-foot alligator was later plucked from the lake, and wildlife officials said it was believed to be the one that attacked Apgar.
Alligators throughout Florida have been blamed for about 275 attacks on humans, fewer than two dozen of them fatal, since the state began keeping records in 1948.
