Lost college students rescued from alligator-infested swamp

GlobalPost

Four Georgia college students were lucky to have made it out of a river without become an alligator's lunch.

The students from Mercer University were floating in an inflatable raft on the Ocmulgee River swamp on Monday night when they became lost, reports The Telegraph of Macon.

The 255-mile long river is home to alligators and wild hogs.

Wearing only their bathing suits, the students waded through chest deep water trying to find their way out.

"They don’t know how blessed they were," Sgt. Mitch Scott, of the Macon-Bibb Fire Dept., told The Telegraph.

"There are gators down there that would eat you whole."

More from GlobalPost: Record-setting 727 pound alligator snared in Mississippi

The students, two men and two women, drifted four or five miles down the river before calling for help at about 9pm Monday night.

Rescuers searched for the group for more than two hours before finding them with help from the GPS on their one working phone, which was down to 8 percent battery by the time they were found.

One of the two bikini-clad women said she would never get in that water again, Scott said.

Sign up for our daily newsletter

Sign up for The Top of the World, delivered to your inbox every weekday morning.