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This article was first published 15 years ago

Lead, follow or get out of the bull's way

Last updated on: July 13, 2009 

Image: A "recortador" performs with a fighting bull
Photographs: Reuters

A "recortador" performs with a fighting bull at the Plaza de Toros on the sixth day of the San Fermin festival in Pamplona.

Two men were seriously injured during the traditional Running of the Bulls in the Spanish city of Pamplona on Sunday, one day after another runner was gored to death there for the first time since 2003.

Pamplona's 'San Fermin' is one of hundreds of bull-running fiestas held in Spain every year, attracting hundreds of runners from around the world, often drinking all night before the early morning run.

The raging bull

Image: A Dolores Aguirre fighting bull falls on the Estafeta corner on the fifth day of the bull run festival

The San Fermin festival draws tourists from around the world, who don traditional all-white garb with a red sash around the waist and red kerchief around the neck before running through narrow, twisting cobbled streets, pursued by bulls.

The chase lasts about four minutes and is shown live on television. The bulls are usually killed after the runs by bullfighters.

US tourist injured

Image: Matador Jose Miguel Perez

An American tourist was gored in the abdomen on the third day of the centuries-old annual bull-running festival.

The 22-year-old man from California was stable after being admitted to hospital along with a Greek man, aged 20, who suffered facial injuries. Several of the hundreds who took part were trampled by bulls, but were not reported to require treatment.

Jimeno gored to death

Image: Traditional San Fermin handkerchiefs and scarves are left at the site where Daniel Jimeno was gored to death

Damniel Jimeno, a 27-year-old from Alcala de Henares near Madrid, was fatally gored in the neck on Saturday.

Television showed one man being gored in the neck before he was trampled under the hooves of bulls charging through the city's narrow streets surrounded by dozens of runners trying to get as close as possible to the animals.

'The Sun also Rises'

Image: A Dolores Aguirre fighting bull charges against a runner during the fifth bull run of the San Fermin festival

A 44-year-old local man was caught by a bull weighing over half a tonne, after the animal became detached from others and was circled by a crowd of runners just before end of the course at the bull ring.

The bull impaled him in the chest, before returning to toss the bloodied man into the air several times and shredding his traditional white trousers, despite efforts by other runners to distract the animal and pull it away by its tail.

The festival dates back to the 13th century. The bull-running was made famous by Ernest Hemingway's novel "The Sun also Rises", a semi-autobiographical account of an alcohol-fuelled visit to the festival by a group of squabbling British and American friends in the 1920s.

Source: REUTERS
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