A New Jersey family of four is feeling lucky to be alive after a Good Samaritan saved them from a wolf attack during a camping trip in Canada.

The attack occurred at around 1am in Banff National Park in Alberta last Friday. At the time, the family was sleeping in their tent when a wolf suddenly tore through it. The father Matthew immediately threw himself in front of his wife and their two boys. The mother Elissa wrote on social media that he “pinned the Wolf to the ground and held open its jaw with his hands.”

The wolf bit down on Matthew’s arm and began dragging him, with Elisa saying, “I was pulling on his legs trying to get him back.”

“We were screaming for help as he was fighting and trying to save us, for what felt like an eternity,” Elisa wrote in her post.

Russ Fee, who was camping nearby, heard the family screaming and immediately leapt to action. He kicked the wolf in the “back hip area,” causing the animal to release Matthew and get out of the tent. As Elisa and the boys ran to Russ’s minivan to hide, the men screamed at the wolf and threw rocks at it until the creature left the campsite. The family then rushed Matthew to the hospital, where he was treated for puncture wounds and lacerations.

“I could have been so, so much worse, and we are just feeling so thankful that we are all still sitting here as a complete family,” Elisa wrote.

Park officials closed the park for the weekend and were able to track down and kill the wolf. Cases of wolves attacking humans in this way are very rare, and a spokesperson for the park said he was 20 pounds below the average weight.

Find out more about this in the video below.