One person was gored and four others injured yesterday at the first running of the bulls in this year’s San Fermin Festival in Pamplona, Spain.
The week-long event began on Friday with the midday firing of the traditional chupinazo firework rocket on the city hall balcony.
The first run — in which bulls charge runners through narrow cobbled streets — only began yesterday morning and already five were wounded, Red Cross officials said, adding that one of them was gored.
Photo: Reuters
The streets were slippery due to overnight showers and some bulls became separated from the herd and took other paths. The bulls completed the 848m run from the corral to the bull-ring in just less than three minutes.
“The important thing is to finish in one piece and to be here again tomorrow,” participant Inigo Plaza said. “To have an animal weighing 600kg behind you and with all these people in the streets, it’s an indescribable feeling of adrenaline and excitement.”
The festival claims scores of casualties every year.
Last year, there were more than 17,000 participants and 64 were wounded. Seven of the injured were gored.
Since 1910, 16 runners have died — the last one in 2009.
“It’s taking a lot of risks for nothing,” said Raul Plaza, who has run more than 130 times at San Fermin.
The run-up to this year’s event has been overshadowed by reminders of the gang rape of a woman during the 2016 edition. Sexual assaults also marred previous contests.
In the central Plaza del Castillo square, town hall publicity material bore the slogan “Pamplona, a city free of sexist assaults” and city officials have launched a mobile phone app for women to use if they believe they are in danger.
Municipal employees and members of feminist associations handed out red badges shaped like hands to participants to raise awareness of sexual violence.
Feminist collectives have tried to avoid overly focusing on the 2016 case.
“Zooming in on a sole case renders invisible other assaults,” they said in a pre-festival statement.
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