A Florida man was violently attacked by a 9-foot alligator Saturday at his home in Daytona Beach.

Scott Hollingsworth told local media that he and his wife were watching television on Saturday night when he heard something banging against the door.

“I jumped up and headed over and opened the door, stepped out while trying to reach the lights and barely got out the door and got my leg clamped on and [it] started shaking really violently,” he said. “It happened so quickly, wasn’t a whole lot [of time]. It was just total surprise and shock. We see alligators behind our house, it’s a regular thing, but they always keep their distance from us.”

Hollingsworth thought the alligator was perhaps only 6 or 7 feet long and was surprised to learn that it was closer in size to a fully grown adult at 9 feet long.

“I really didn’t get a good look at it,” he added. “When I saw what it was, I stepped back in the house and closed the door. Looked down and I had a large gash in the side of my leg. I was trying to put pressure on it.”

Hollingsworth said that he had to have surgery on his leg and that he is thankful that the alligator did not grab his knee. He said he won’t get to enjoy riding his bicycle for quite a while.

The attack comes just a couple of weeks after a 10-foot alligator exploded out of a pond and killed 85-year-old Gloria Serge, who was walking her dog at a community retention pond at Spanish Lakes Fairways, a little over a hundred miles away from Daytona Beach.

The alligator, which local media said weighed up to 700 pounds, surged out of the water and tried to grab her dog. Serge tried to fight off the alligator, but it grabbed her foot and dragged her into the water.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said that while alligators are still on the federal endangered species list, they can still easily be found all over the state.

“Alligators occur in all 67 counties in Florida and can be found in practically all fresh and brackish water bodies and occasionally in salt water,” the state agency said. “Although exact population figures are not known, Florida has a healthy and stable population of about 1.3 million alligators of every size. This population estimate is based on an estimated 6.7 million acres of suitable habitat.”

It is illegal to feed alligators because feeding them teaches them to associate food with humans and thus causes them to lose their fear of people. Despite their numbers in the state, attacks on people remain relatively rare as they prefer to only attack prey that they can easily overpower.