A woman was killed in an alligator attack while walking her dog near a golf course.

The dog walker, who is aged 69 but has not yet been named, was found dead in the Spanish Wells community of Hilton Head Island in the US state of South Carolina.

The Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office said the woman’s body was found at the edge of a lagoon bordering a golf course.

The alligator appeared to be guarding the woman which interrupted emergency rescue attempts, but it was eventually removed.

The woman’s body was recovered and a post-mortem is expected to take place in due course.

Major Angela Viens, a sheriff’s office spokesperson, confirmed the dog was found safe.

The office said this is the second fatal alligator attack in Beaufort County in the past year.

Another woman, aged 88, was attacked by an alligator while walking near a lagoon in Sun City in August.

A 23-year-old man in Florida also lost his arm after an alligator attacked him at the Banditos bar in Port Charlotte in May.

Frank Robb, an expert ‘gator trapper’ in Florida, spoke to FOX35 about the recent increase in attacks.

He said: ‘The more Florida expands, the more people we get into Florida, the more people we keep jamming down here we’re building on a lot of areas that are surrounding marsh areas and wild areas.

‘Conflict like this is becoming more common, but that’s not the alligator’s fault. The alligator doesn’t want to be doing this, and of course, people don’t want that type of interaction.’

He said people should stay vigilant and protect themselves by doing things like ‘not walking their dog right next to the water that could have an alligator in it’. 

Frank added: ‘Sometimes it’s right to play “what if”. What if that gator came up and attacked my dog? There’d be nothing you can do.

‘That’s not the interaction they’re looking to have but the right time, right place, things like that can go down.’

People were warned to stay a safe distance from any alligators, keep pets on leashes, and only swim in designated areas.

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