Three gored in shocking scenes on first day of running of the bulls festival
Five people were hospitalised after the first bull run of the controversial San Fermin festival in Pamplona, Spain.
The running of the bulls festival attracts more than one million spectators every year. This year, three men, two Americans and a Spaniard, were gored by bulls in the run.
A 46-year-old man from California was gored in the neck and required surgery. A 23-year-old American and a 40-year-old Spanish man were both gored in the thigh. Two young Spanish men sustained head injuries.
According to local Red Cross emergency personnel, a further 48 people were attended to with less serious or minor injuries, including two who were trampled by the bulls.
The bulls in the inaugural run featured bulls from the Puerto de San Lorenzo cattle breeder, who supplied the bulls last year, resulting in one goring.
The run lasted 2 minutes and 41 seconds along the barricaded street course, and party-goers continued the celebrations after the race, showering each other with wine and champagne.
Every year, hundreds of “runners” race ahead, or beside, the bulls, while spectators watch from the balconies
On top of the race and endless partying, the festival also includes music performances, traditional sports and dance displays, a religious procession on Sunday and a firework competition.
The festival runs for nine days. Six bulls run every morning, before being killed in the afternoon bullfights.
The festival was immortalised in American novelist Ernest Hemingway’s 1926 book, “The Sun Also Rises”.
– with Associated Press
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