Officials in South Carolina responded to the scene of a possible fatal alligator attack on Hilton Head Island Tuesday morning, according to an alert from the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office.

A 69-year-old resident of Spanish Wells was found at the edge of a lagoon bordering the golf course along Brams Point Road and appeared to be unresponsive before 9:30 a.m. An alligator appeared and was guarding the woman, interrupting rescue efforts, the alert said.

Maj. Angela Viens, spokesperson for the Sheriff’s Office, said the alligator was a little over nine feet long.

The alligator was removed from the area, and the woman’s body was recovered.

Stephen Fastenau, spokesperson for the S.C. Department of Natural Resources, confirmed that the alligator was euthanized.

Deputies learned that the woman had been walking her dog earlier this morning when the attack occurred. Her dog was found safe, according to Viens.

The woman has not been publicly identified as of early Tuesday afternoon. It was not clear where the woman was taken into the water.

An autopsy was planned.

Sheriff’s Office deputies, Hilton Head Island Fire Rescue, Beaufort County Coroner’s Office and Spanish Wells security personnel responded the scene. Biologists and officers with SCDNR are investigating.

This is the second fatal alligator attack in Beaufort County in less than a year.

On Aug. 15, 2022, an 88-year-old Sun City woman was killed by an alligator while doing yardwork beside a lagoon near her home.

Before that, the next previous fatal attack was in the Hilton Head community of Sea Pines in 2018, when an alligator pulled a 45-year-old woman and her small dog into a pond after it grabbed hold of the leash.

In June, Shipyard on Hilton Head temporarily banned fishing in lagoons on the community’s property after a man fishing there was chased by an alligator. No one was injured in that incident, but three alligators showing signs of aggression ultimately were removed from the lagoon.

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