Spain’s bull running festival claims more injuries

Madrid: Spain’s famous bull running fiesta in Pamplona claimed yet more victims today as eight daredevil participants were injured, some of them gored and trampled on, authorities said. The annual San Fermin festival attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the world, some of whom take to the narrow streets of Pamplona in northern Spain to run alongside bulls while trying their best to avoid their sharp horns. In their daily spreadsheet that tracks injuries during San Fermin, the regional government of Navarra, where Pamplona is located, said seven men and one woman aged 18 to 57 – all of them Spanish – were hurt and taken to hospital. Two men were gored, though the government said their injuries were not serious. But it said the condition of three of the runners who had suffered unspecified trauma to the chest, arm and face, was as yet unclear. A video of this morning’s run shows a dozen bulls being let out of their enclosure onto a road and charging into runners clad in traditional white with red scarves and belts. One of the men falls down and is trampled by two bulls, one of which then gives another runner a shove with his horn, prompting him to fall down. The bull runs take place every morning at 8:00 am during the festival, after which the animals are put to death in bullfights. Anyone aged 18 or above can take part, though authorities warn it is at their risk. Injuries are frequent and people have died in the past, the last one in 2009. So far this year, more than 30 people have been injured in the bull runs. (AFP)