Four Mercer University students were rescued from an alligator-infested swamp late Monday night, after spending several hours lost on a Middle Georgia river.
The students, two women and two men, dressed only in bathing suits, lost their way while floating on inflatable rafts down the Ocmulgee River near Macon.
The students told rescuers that they at times waded chest-deep in the swamp, trying to find a way out, according to the Macon Telegraph.
The swamp is home to alligators and wild hogs.
“They don’t know how blessed they were,” Sgt. Mitch Scott, of the Macon-Bibb Fire Department, told the Telegraph. “There are gators down there that would eat you whole.”
They drifted four or five miles down the river before calling for help around 9 p.m. Macon-Bibb firefighters pulled the students from the water more than two hours later.
Rescuers tracked a GPS signal from the group’s one working phone, the Telegraph reported.
Three of the students are from Georgia while one is from Florida.
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