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FOUR PEOPLE WERE injured in falls and five people were gored as more than a thousand thrill-seekers raced alongside fighting bulls through the streets of a northern Spanish city in the first bull run of the San Fermin festival.
Navarra Hospital doctor Manuel Montesino said three people sustained head injuries while another suffered an arm injury in the 8am run in Pamplona.
The Guardian said that five people were gored in this morning’s run.
A regional government said the four were Spaniards and none was in serious condition.
In the nationally televised morning runs, participants dash along with six bulls and accompanying steer down a narrow 850-metre course from a holding pen to Pamplona’s bull ring.
The bulls then face matadors and almost certain death in afternoon bullfights.
Thursday’s run lasted two minutes, 28 seconds.
The nine-day fiesta became world famous with Ernest Hemingway’s 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises and is now one of Spain’s biggest tourist events.
Many people suffered falls and were trampled on by the bulls or other runners. In one incident, four bulls crashed into a bunch of participants close to the end of the race, and several people narrowly missed being gored.
Bull runs, or “encierros” as they are called in Spanish, are a traditional part of summer festivals across Spain. Dozens of people are injured each year in the runs, mostly in falls.
Ten people, including four Americans, were gored in last year’s festival.
In all, 15 people have died from gorings in the San Fermin festival since record-keeping began in 1924. The festival has been consistently criticised by animal welfare activists, with protests sometimes taking place in response to the bull-run.
The festival started on Wednesday with the traditional midday launching of a firework rocket — known as the Chupinazo— from Pamplona’s town hall balcony.
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Are the Bulls ok?
Most likely they’re dead at the hands of a matador, at this stage.
Sad day for the bulls
Barbaric nonsense
Moron. Race?? Really. Chopping off people’s heads in Saudi, oh it’s their culture your a racist. Pipe down you clown. End this madness
Shame they weren’t all gored and the bulls spared.
If you are stupid enough to run in front of bulls with 6 – 12 inch horns you deserve to be gorged.
Incredible experience i have to say. That and the bullfighting in Madrid. There is a life outside of complaining about the world on the Journal
Sure let them at it, if you do the run you know the risks.
Good. I wish more was done to stop this cruelty. I hope the bulls get more victims before they are killed
VERY SAD VERY VERY SAD .The poor bulls should have got more
Breaking News: Man walks out in rain storm and gets wet!
Do the Darwin Awards sponsor it? Shameful treatment of the bulls.
Oh humans…intelligent as we are…
I heard that after the festival the streets are left in an awful state. I think it’s just loads of bull’s sh!t
Good enough for them…..cruel crude event
Good enough for them
The Bulls are fine. But they’re getting killed in the circus next week.
Silly, silly båstards!
Good, very good news indeed.
Where is that Irish Army cow culling unit when you need it !?!
These idiots deserve it.Why is this even news?
It is cruel to animals and dangerous for people?
Yes. If the Bulls rounded up a few people and chased them down the street for fun before killing them it would be the other way around.
PEOPLE LACK EMPATHY THESE DAYS?
I’m become more Eurosceptic everyday. European people in general are a strange breed, don’t think the Irish are compatible with mainland Europe in terms of their long term goal of a political union.
Then again it might be the case that I might be the strange breed and have a different outlook on things.
We have coursing, hunting, driven shoots, bare knuckle fighting and lots more. Every country has its own idiosyncrasies. Europeans are no stranger than anyone else, it’s just diversity.
All those things are the Irish things based on Irish (and British) traditions and culture and could be considered “our problem” so to speak.
Last thing we need is the mashing together of vast amounts of cultures as Ireland loses its sovereign status. Diversity is great and all but can we not just diversify when we visit these countries? Take for example the German Xmas markets: they work well in Germany but when shoehorned into Irish culture they are just tacky (Stephens Green in 2014 for example).
It’s great having the open markets for trade etc but do we really need to be considered “Europeans” (in a political union sense) when we’ve been Irish for centuries beforehand?
“We have coursing, hunting, driven shoots, bare knuckle fighting and lots more”… Culture, boss.
Don’t forget road bowling and sulky racing…
“European people” – WE are European. Why even bring the rest of Europeans in to this? Why us and them? I live in Spain and I’ll tell you for a fact we are very much so similar in most ways. Obviously some cultural differences.. Behind the language, we have a very similar humour, thought process and v similar priorities. Pot meet kettle, pal. I hate this us and them outdated mentality. We Irish have much more in common with the Spaniards than you know. Majority of Spanish hate bull fighting just FYI. Every country has its issues. Don’t get me started on the flaws in our own traditions.
Compare the mentality to citizens from the U.S. If you ask one of these people where they are from they’ll automatically say “America” first and then whatever state “Iowa, California” whatever. Ask anyone in Europe and they’ll automatically say “Italy, Spain, Germany” wherever and then Europe.
European culture is far too old to be tried to be mashed together into one big superstate like the U.S. Separate identities have been carved out over the centuries. Obviously you will get areas in countries that are more in tune with other countries than their own host country due to historical movement of people over the centuries like Brittany in France are more in tune with the British Isles than France. But for the most part each country is far different to the next be it through language, culture, tradition etc.
We may have all come from the same place at the beginning of Western Civilisation but time has played a role in separating us.
I see more similarities than differences to be honest. Many people may disagree due to language barriers, but I also think Irish are more similar to our neighbouring European countries in culture than we are to any of the american cultures. Maybe american TV makes us think otherwise, but I think reality is quite different.
Usual morons on here saying its barbaric. It’s a bit of craic for people once a year, so what if a few hundred bulls get killed, they’d be killed somehow anyway.
Must be a great way to die if you’re into that sort of thing
Pity none of them were killed
Sign me up for next year, would love to do it
wish the bulls had culled them all… they’re the worst of human nature to be participating in something as sick as that. this kind of thing is why I hate people.
No Matadors this year. They got the Irish army in instead.
Delighted
GOOD.
serves the ejits right
have your say