Alligator drags boy into the water near Disney World's Resort

A two-year-old boy is missing after he was dragged into a lagoon by an alligator at a Disney World resort in Orlando - despite his father's frantic attempts to wrestle his son from the reptile's jaws.

The child was paddling in a foot of water with his mother at the Grand Floridian Resort & Spa around 9.20pm on Tuesday despite 'no swimming' signs being posted nearby.

The boy was then snatched by the animal and despite his father desperately trying to grab his son from the alligator's jaws, the child was pulled into the Seven Seas Lagoon and remains missing.

Alligators are a relatively common sight at the Walt Disney World resort but are removed when they reach four foot and get too near to guest areas. 

Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings said the boy, who was part of a family of five arrived in Orlando on vacation from Nebraska on Sunday.

He told a news conference early this morning that the parents and their three children had been on the beach at the time of the attack. 

Demings said: 'The father entered the water and tried to grab the child but he was not successful in doing so. I'm told that at some point, the mother also entered the water.'

He said that the family had been enjoying a 'movie night' and the child had been in a play pen.

Later, as the boy played, he waded in about one foot of water with his mother and the alligator - believed to be anywhere between four and seven feet long - attacked.

'As they waded into the water along the lake's edge at the time, that's when the alligator attacked,' he said.

He added that the family alerted a nearby lifeguard but they were not able to save the boy. The father was left with scratches after the ordeal.

'We are not leaving until we recover the child,' Demings added, saying there were more than 50 law enforcement personnel who are actively searching the lake.

'As a father, as a grandfather, we are going to hope for the best in these circumstances but based on my 35 years of experience, we know that we have some challenges ahead,' he said.

Demings said there had been no other recent reports of similar alligator attacks on the lake.

'We have no record of this happening before,' he added.

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