Spain: Seven injured on third day of Pamplona bull running festival

Seven people were injured and thousands narrowly escaped injury during the third running of the bulls at the San Fermin festival in Pamplona.

Herings, when a bull’s horn impales a runner, is the most dangerous injury at the Spanish festival.

A total of seven men – six Spaniards and one French – required hospital treatment after the morning bull run, but none were seriously injured.

Initial reports indicated that two people were killed during the event, but Spanish authorities later corrected this, saying the man had been scratched by the horn, not pierced.

Although no one was killed, there were a few close calls.

Six bulls and six tame oxen dashed through the narrow winding streets of Pamplona’s old quarter in two and a half minutes, trampling or knocking down several runners.

The incredibly popular festival, made famous to the English-speaking world by Ernest Hemingway’s 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises, attracts huge numbers of visitors from all over the world.

Thousands of men and a few women participate in “encieros,” or running of the bulls, trying to avoid the massive bulls and oxen.

The 875-meter track is sprayed with a substance that helps prevent the bulls from slipping on sharp turns.

The run is usually over within three minutes, which are stopped.

Experienced bull runners, mostly locals, try to run at full speed in front of the bull’s horns before running away at the last second.

While the inexperienced runners, a group that includes mostly foreigners, manage it well enough to get off the road.

The bulls that run every morning are killed by professional bullfighters during the day.

Almost everyone in Pamplona wears the traditional white shirt and trousers with a red belt and a neckerchief to the festival.

The runs are followed by a day of drinking, eating and attending cultural events.

Eight people were killed in 2019, the last festival before a two-year hiatus due to the Covid pandemic.

Since 1910, 16 people have died in Pamplona, ​​the last death was in 2009.

As one of Europe’s most famous traditional festivals, the San Fermin Festival is not without controversy.

Animal rights activists have campaigned against the slaughter of the bulls, but the bullfight is still popular among sections of Spanish society and remains an integral part of the festival.