PAMPLONA, Spain – One person was gored twice by a fighting bull and two people suffered other injuries as thousands of thrill-seekers dashed alongside the beasts in the second bull-run of Pamplona’s San Fermin festival Wednesday.
The San Fermin press office said the victim was gored in the leg and back in Pamplona’s bull ring at the end of the run and was treated by doctors on the scene before being taken to a city hospital. Details of his condition or identity were not immediately released.
Hospital and Red Cross officials had initially said they had no reports of gorings in the run, which lasted 2 minutes, 14 seconds.
One Spaniard was hospitalized for rib injuries while a Frenchman was treated for multiple bruises but later released.
Two Americans and a Briton were gored and eight others injured in the first run Tuesday. All but the two Americans were released the same day.
One American still hospitalized was Mike Webster, a 38-year-old occupational therapist from Gainesville, Florida, who was gored in the armpit as he joined the bull-run in Pamplona for the 38th time in 11 years. He said Tuesday he hadn’t decided whether he’d run again.
The other was identified only by his initials, R.H.O., a 25-year-old from Tempe, Arizona, who suffered facial bruising.
The nationally televised 8 a.m. run sees people racing with six bulls and their guiding steer along a narrow 930-yard (850-meter) course from a holding pen to the city bull ring. The bulls are then killed by professional matadors in bullfights each afternoon.
The nine-day fiesta in Pamplona, which features 24-hour street partying, was made famous in Ernest Hemingway’s 1926 novel “The Sun Also Rises” and attracts thousands of foreign tourists.
Bull runs are a traditional part of summer festivals across Spain. Dozens are injured each year, mostly in falls.
Two men died recently after being gored by bulls in Spanish festivals – one Saturday in the eastern town of Grao de Castellon and another June 24 in the southwestern town of Coria.
In all, 15 people have died from gorings in Pamplona since record-keeping began in 1924 for the San Fermin festival.
—
Giles reported from Madrid
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