Seven people injured on third day of Pamplona's bull running festival
Seven people have been injured with thousands narrowly avoided being gored during the third bull run of Pamplona’s San Fermin Festival.
Gorings, when a bull’s horn skewers a runner, are the most dangerous injuries at the Spanish festival.
A total of seven men – six Spaniards and one Frenchman – required hospital treatment following this morning’s bull run but none of them were seriously hurt.
Initial reports suggested two people had been gored during the event but Spanish authorities later corrected this to state that a man was scratched by a horn, not pierced.
While no-one was gored, there were several close calls.
Several runners were stomped or bowled over by the six bulls and the six tame oxen that thundered through the narrow, twisting streets of Pamplona’s old quarter in two and a half minutes.
The incredibly popular festival, which was made known to the English-speaking world through Ernest Hemingway’s 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises, draws huge numbers of visitors from around the world.
Thousands of men, and some women, participate in the ‘encierros,’ or bull runs, trying to avoid the massive bulls and oxen.
The course of 875 meters is sprayed with a substance to help prevent the bulls from slipping on the tight corners.
The run usually is over within three heart-stopping minutes.
Expert bull runners, mostly locals, try to sprint at full steam just in front of the bull horns before peeling off at the last second.
While inexperienced runners, a group that includes most foreigners, do well enough to scramble out of the way.
The bulls that run each morning are killed in the afternoon by professional bullfighters.
Almost everyone in Pamplona wears the traditional white shirt and trousers with a red sash and neckerchief for the festival.
The runs are followed by a day of drinking, eating and attending cultural events.
Eight people were gored in 2019, the last festival before a two-year hiatus due to the Covid pandemic.
Sixteen people have died in Pamplona’s bull runs since 1910, with the last death in 2009.
While being one of Europe’s most famous traditional festivals, the San Fermin festival is not without its controversy.
Animal rights activists have campaigned against the slaughter of the bulls, but bullfights are still popular among segments of Spanish society and remain an integral part of the festival.
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