Capt. Stefan Schmidt of Engine 13, who rendered aid along with personnel from New Orleans Emergency Medical Services, credited the boy's father for saving his life.
"I really feel he would have pulled him under, drowned the kid and killed him," Schmidt said of an alligator he estimated at 6 feet in length. "The dad jumped on the gator and was literally beating it, and it let go of his son."
The family was swimming at dusk near the mouth of Bayou St. John where it meets Lake Pontchartrain — a popular spot to cool off due to the nearby sandbar, according to the New Orleans Fire Department. Swimmers spotted the gator swimming toward the boy and yelled to warn him.
But the child thought people were joking. His injury was "pretty bad," said Schmidt, who along with EMS workers helped wrap the boy's leg before transporting him to a hospital.
Comment: Later the same Saturday in the evening : 12-hour downpour floods roads, causes evacuations in Phu Quoc, Vietnam - 4.7 inches in just an hour