A 61-year-old woman was killed Tuesday when an alligator tipped over the canoe that she and her husband were paddling in Central Florida and attacked her after they fell in the water, authorities said.

The attack took place just after 4 p.m. where Tiger Creek meets Lake Kissimmee in Polk County, which is south of Orlando, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officials said at a news conference Wednesday.

Maj. Evan Laskowski said that the woman, Cynthia Diekema, of Davenport, Florida, was canoeing with her husband in about 2.5 feet of water “when their canoe passed over a large alligator.”

The alligator then “thrashed and tipped the canoe over,” Laskowski said, throwing the couple into the water.

“She ended up on top of the alligator in the water and was bitten,” he added, noting that her husband attempted to intervene but was unsuccessful. The gator, which the authorities said was 11 feet 4 inches long, pulled her underwater.

Diekema’s body was later recovered from the water.

— The New York Times