Spain’s Pamplona festival bull run leaves 2 men gored

The third bull run of Pamplona’s San Fermín Festival ended Saturday with the event’s first gorings of the year.

Two men were injured in the leg by a bull horn, Pamplona hospital spokesperson Estrella Petrina said. A total of seven people needed to be treated at the hospital following Saturday’s running of the bulls.

Thousands of runners, most wearing the traditional white shirt and pants with red sash and neckerchief, scampered to avoid the charging animals. Many ended up piled on top of each other in the narrow cobblestone streets of the course.

The incredibly popular Pamplona festival, which was made known to the English-speaking world through Ernest Hemingway’s 1926 novel “The Sun Also Rises,” draws tens of thousands of visitors from around the world.

Eight people were gored in 2019, the last festival before a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Sixteen people have died in Pamplona’s bull runs since 1910, with the last death in 2009.

Saturday’s bull run was the third of eight scheduled this year. There were no gorings on the first two days.

The collective adrenaline rush of the bull run is followed by general hedonism with people drinking, eating, attending concerts and partying late into the night.

The six bulls that run each morning are killed in bullfights by professional bullfighters later in the day.