Apr 11, 2007, 12:31 GMT
Taipei - An alligator in a Taiwan zoo bit off a veterinarian's forearm Wednesday when the vet was trying to treat the sick animal.
The incident occurred at the Shoushan Zoo in Kaohsiung, south Taiwan, when zoo vet Chang Po-yu was giving the alligator three anaesthesia shots, so that he could treat the alligator's illness.
After having given the alligator its shots, Chang, thinking the animal was under anaesthesia, tried to pull the syringe with his left hand from the alligator, but the alligator suddenly turned around and bit off Chang's left hand and forearm.
Chang was rushed to hospital. The zoo's security personnel arrived at the scene one hour later, shot the alligator and freed Chang's forearm from the alligator's mouth and sent it to the hospital.
Chang was conscious upon arrival at the hospital, and doctors began sewing his left forearm back on.
'This is a difficult operation because we have to sew back his muscles, nerves and blood vessels which are badly severed,' one doctor told reporters.
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