One man gored and seven others bruised in Spain’s bull running festival

A man was gored and seven others lightly injured on Tuesday, the second day of Pamplona’s San Fermin festival in which thousands of people line the mediaeval city’s narrow streets for the centuries-old tradition of running with bulls.

The man who was gored, identified only as being older than 25, was injured by a bull horn under his right armpit, a spokesperson for the city emergency services said.

“At this time, he is under observation but is in stable condition,” she told reporters.

The seven others suffered bruises and contusions, some in the shoulder or head.

In the festival’s “encierros”, or bull runs, fighting bulls are set loose in the streets and then race to reach the bullfight arena. Hundreds of aficionados, many wearing traditional white shirts with red scarves, run with them.

On Tuesday morning, one of the bulls stopped in the middle of his run, and charged the runners for several tense minutes.

The festival, which gained international fame from Ernest Hemingway’s 1926 novel “The Sun Also Rises”, lasts for one week in early July.

Participants are occasionally gored at the hundreds of such bull-running fiestas in Spain every year. Other injuries are common. At least 16 runners have lost their lives at the Pamplona festival down the years, the last in 2009.

As well as the morning bull runs and afternoon bullfights, the San Fermin festival features round-the-clock singing, dancing and drinking by revellers.

There are also religious events in honour of the saint.