Disturbing pic shows 8ft maneater alligator with a HUMAN BODY in its mouth in Florida
The fearsome predator is being hunted after police saw it doing a 'death roll' with a man between its teeth
A MANEATER alligator spotted with a human body in its jaws is being hunted in Florida.
A horrified pensioner saw the fearsome reptile with a person between its teeth in the lake close to his retirement home.
A police officer called to the scene then witnessed the beast performing a "death roll" - used by crocs and alligators to drown their victims.
Cops later found the body - believed to be an adult male human - but the gator escaped and is still on the loose.
It is not clear if the predator killed the man or found a corpse and tried to eat it.
Sergeant Gary Gross of Lakeland Police Department said: "The officers got here and the alligator still had the person.
"He let the individual go, he is deceased, looks like this person may have been dead more than a day.
"We don’t want to speculate but I will tell when the officer got here the alligator did a roll and had the person in contact with him.
RELATED STORIES
"The officers immediately got their firearms out in case the gator comes up. Once he left they didn’t want him coming back and pull the body back out, that did not happen."
Local trappers are hunting the 8ft alligator, TV channel WFLA reports.
Tests are being carried out on the body to identify the body and discover how the person died, police said.
Last week fishermen discovered at least two alligators eating a body in a South Florida canal.
Police were able to recover the remains, but said they were unable to identify whether the victim was a man or a woman.
Detectives believe the body may have been in the water for several days, but have not yet said how the person died.