WATCH — Man Rescues Animal Handler During Alligator Attack: ‘He Really Bit Down’

An animal trainer was attacked by an alligator at a child’s birthday party in Utah recently but was saved when a guest jumped onto the reptile’s back.

Trainer Lindsay Bull told reporters she was feeding the male alligator at Scales and Tails in Salt Lake City, where she has worked for approximately four years, when the incident occurred on Saturday, NBC News reported.

“I can’t tell you exactly what happened,” she commented, however, the reptile grabbed her hand and “really bit down.”

Video footage of the incident showed Bull entering the enclosure’s water. The move, she explained, was to prevent Darth Gator from tearing off a “chunk” of her arm.

She wrestled with the animal for a few moments and even flipped over with it in the water before wrapping her legs around it.

A man at the event, identified as Donnie Wiseman, was heard asking the young woman how he could help.

Bull recalled Wiseman had previously told her he used to work with an 18-foot rock python, so she advised him, “If you can get on his back, go on his back.”

Wiseman quickly jumped on the animal’s back to subdue him and Bull was eventually able to remove her hand from its grasp.

Another man helped pull her out of the water and Wiseman later escaped the enclosure.

Bull dubbed Wiseman a hero, but also said she did not want people thinking the gator was a “mindless killing machine.”

“What happened was an accident,” Bull noted. “I’m so much more to blame than Darth Gator.”

In a Facebook post on Sunday, Scales and Tails praised those who came to the rescue.

“Their help, combined with the training of our staff member, probably saved her life and her limbs,” the company wrote:

“Our staff member is doing well and is in recovery,” it concluded.