A former Arbroath man has survived a life-or-death struggle with an eight-foot alligator in America.
Doug Brown, 45, who now lives in Florida, was attacked when the gator leapt out of a canal and tried to pull him into the water.
Mr Brown was repairing a water pump behind his mother Doreen’s home near the shore of a lake, but had ignored her warning about an alligator nearby.
He suffered a four-inch gash on his hand and severed tendons after the gator’s teeth slashed him as he pulled his hand from its jaws.
Only a handful of unprovoked alligator attacks occur every year and experts say what happened to the Angus ex-pat was a one in two-and-a-half million bad luck chance.
Mr Brown said: “He came out of the water like a torpedo.
“It was just a big splash. I turned my head and saw a white belly and a big mouth coming towards me.”
Mr Brown said his mother had warned him about the alligator, which was known to hang around in the canal, and shouted when she spotted it about 12 feet away from him.
He added that the gator quickly ducked under water and he assumed it was leaving the area — and he even joked if she wanted him to catch it.
Mr Brown resumed working on the pump until the gator just shot out of nowhere at him.
He tried to jump up and turn away, but it was too late and the alligator clamped down on his hand and tried to pull him in.
Mr Brown was able to shake the alligator off and it fell back into the water. He added: “I just had to get my hand out quickly or I was going for a swim.
“I didn’t know I was hurt until I looked down and saw a large gash on the back of my hand.
“I’m familiar with alligators, but it’s the last thing I expected it to do.”
The wildlife agency then summoned a trapper to the Canal Street site in Tavares to try to catch it.
The alligator swam into a nearby boathouse afterwards, where residents of the Sunset View neighbourhood apparently used marshmallows to help lure it out into the open.
Wildlife officials were then able to use a huge fishing pole to grab a hold of the gator and a trapper was able to place a noose around its neck and tie it up.