In South Florida, a horror-struck father dove into the water to rescue his 6-year-old son from the deadly clutches of an alligator, WSVN-TV reports. The father, Joseph Welch, was out canoeing with his son, Joey, near Boynton Beach on Friday, when the boy wandered out of the father's eye.

That's when he heard his boy screaming.

"I immediately heard this scream coming out of him so I raced down the hill and I could see that an alligator had latched on to his right arm," said Welch.

So the father ran into the waist-deep water and struck the gator on the head.

"I didn't want to play tug-of-war with the alligator and get his arm ripped off, so while I'm doing that I started punching the alligator on top of the head as hard as I could."

The alligator wouldn't let go, so an onlooker rushed over to help the father.

Said Joseph, "[I] Kicked the alligator in the stomach, in the mid-section, while I was punching him. Fortunately, the alligator did eventually release, and I was able to get my son out of the water."

Joey was rushed to a nearby hospital where, miraculously, he only suffered minor injuries.

The boy's mother, Jackie, believes it was a "miracle" that saved her son and his arm, telling WSVN "Why my son has an arm today? Why he doesn't have puncture marks? It's a miracle."

Joseph Welch said Florida Fish and Wildlife officials captured the alligator on Friday night, and he doesn't plan on taking another canoe trip with his son for quite some time.