US tourist, 23, seriously injured after he was gored in the left leg during Pamplona's infamous bull festival
Spanish officials have reported that five people, including two Americans, were injured during the opening bull run of this year’s San Fermin festival, an annual event held in the northern city of Pamplona. One of the American tourists is a 23-year-old who is reportedly 'serious' after being gored in the left leg. The other US tourist is a 46-year-old Californian who suffered from a superficial neck wound.
A 40-year-old from the northern Spanish province of La Rioja who gored in the left leg, a 23-year-old from Barcelona and an 18-year-old from the Basque city of San Sebastian were the others who were rushed to the hospital.
TV footage of a surprised man being thrown in the air after being caught by surprise from behind by one of the bulls was also shared. This occurred while he jogged along the half-mile course through Pamplona's street.
A spokesman for Pamplona's Hospital Complex had initially claimed that they had only received one gore victim whose left leg was injured and two others who had received a head injury. According to a report in Daily Mail, these victims are not said to be serious and hospital staff also revealed that one of them lost consciousness and came back to only in the ambulance.
Red Cross spokesman José Aldaba confirmed that the most seriously injured were treated on Sunday following a race which lasted 2 minutes and 41 seconds. The six bulls were accompanied by tame bullocks and ran together as a pack for close to the 850-metre course to the city's bullring and one of them stumbled which caused a panic among the others.
This also led to one of the bulls attacking the racers. The incident occurred at the first of the nine-day runs that are organized on the occasion of San Fermin fiesta, on July 6, and the festival debuted with a traditional 'chupinazo' - firecracker. The event draws about a million visitors annually and the bulls run every morning followed by being killed in the afternoon bullfights.
Sixteen people have been killed so far since 1926 when the event was made famous by Ernest Hemingway in the novel 'The Sun Also Rises'.