Traditional Pamplona bull runner gored to death

A man died after a fighting bull gored him in the neck at the Pamplona bull-running festival that attracts thousands of foreigners each year.

Photo: Traditional Pamplona bull runner gored to death

Eleven other people were injured in the run at the San Fermin festival, three from gorings in the legs and abdomen, Red Cross spokesman Jose Aldaba said in a telephone interview. The dead man was a participant in the bull run.

Each morning for a week, thousands of thrill-seekers dressed in the traditional red and white clothes cram into a cobbled, winding road in the center of the northern Spanish city, as six half-ton fighting bulls are released behind them. The bulls race through the streets and into the bull ring, where they face a bull-fighter in the evening, informs Bloomberg.

Excluding today’s death, fifteen people have been killed in the bull running since 1910, according to the official Web Site of the festival.

According to SkyNews, the festival was made famous by Ernest Hemingway's novel The Sun Also Rises. Hundreds of runners from around the world now participate in the week-long fiesta. Many drink all night before an early morning run through the city's streets in front of bulls rushing to the bull ring.

The last fatal goring at the running of the bulls claimed the life of 22-year-old American Matthew Tassio in 1995. The latest death raises the toll to 15 fatalities since record-keeping began in 1924.

The beasts covering the half-mile course, with six accompanying steers, tend to mind their own business and keep running so long as they stay in a pack. A bull that gets separated is more likely to get aggressive.