PAMPLONA (Spanish) — Officials said that thousands of thrill-seekers managed to avoid being gored Saturday at the bull run of Pamplona’s San Fermin Festival. They revised an earlier report that stated two bull horns had stabbed them.
Officials from the Spanish city corrected the initial report of Pamplona’s Hospital to say that a man had been scratched on his buttocks, but not pierced with a horn.
According to the update, another man was injured by a wild cow that was released in the bullring of the city after the morning’s run through narrow streets had ended. The cow was intended to be used to test individuals’ evasion skills.
According to authorities, seven men were treated at the hospital — six Spaniards as well as one Frenchman. None of the injuries were considered serious.
Although it was not obvious that anyone was being skewered in the main event, there were close calls for human runners. Some bulls chose to run people through with their potentially fatal horns, rather than knocking them down.
Many runners were knocked down or beaten by half-dozen bulls as well as six tame horses that guide them along the 956-yard (875-meter) route through Pamplona’s old quarter.
On the first two days, there were no gorings. Saturday’s bull race was the third scheduled event and took 2 1/2 minutes.
Many thousands of runners, many wearing traditional white shirt, pants and neckerchief with red sash, ran to avoid being charged by the animals. Many ended up stacking on top of one another in narrow cobblestone streets.
Only experts can run for short distances right in front the bull’s horns, before leaping out at the last second.
People drink, eat, attend concerts, and party late into the night to get the adrenaline rush from the bull run.
Professional bullfighters kill the six bulls who run every morning. This year marks the 100th anniversary of Pamplona’s bullring.
In 2019, eight people were killed in the final festival before the COVID-19 pandemic. Since 1910, Pamplona has seen the death of 16 people in its bull runs. The last was in 2009.
The festival of Pamplona, first made famous to English-speaking people by Ernest Hemingway’s 1926 novel “The Sun Also Rises”, draws thousands of tourists from all over the globe.
