Ten people have been injured in bull runs over the first two days of the San Fermin festival in Pamplona, Spain, including two Americans gored by bulls.
A 23-year-old man from Kentucky was gored in the left thigh and a 46-year-old man from San Francisco, California, was gored in the neck on Sunday during the festival’s opening bull run.
Neither American has been identified by name but both are said to be in serious condition. One witness to the attacks said they happened ‘right close together and very fast’.
A 40-year-old man from the northern Spanish province of La Rioja was also gored in the left leg. An 18-year-old from the Basque city of San Sebastian and a 23-year-old from Barcelona were also taken to hospital with head wounds.
TV footage showed a man being lifted up in the air and dumped on his backside after being surprised from behind by one of the half-ton animals as he jogged along the half-mile course through the streets of Pamplona.
The six bulls from the Cebada Gago ranch, which is known for raising merciless animals, were surrounded by tame cattle for most of the 850-meter route to the bullring, leaving runners scrambling for limited space close to their horns throughout the two minute and 41 second run.
One of the fighting bulls fell early on and another became separated from the pack towards the end, causing panic and at least one goring when it charged at some racers before being ushered into a pen.
Ten people have been injured in bull runs over the first two days of the San Fermin festival in Pamplona, Spain, including two Americans. One participant is seen receiving medical attention on Sunday before being hospitalized
Two of the people injured are Americans. A 23-year-old man from Kentucky was gored in the left thigh and a 46-year-old man from San Francisco, California, was gored in the neck on Sunday during the festival’s opening bull run
Neither American has been identified by name but both are said to be in serious condition. One witness to the attacks said they happened ‘right close together and very fast’. An injured man is seen on a stretcher after the violent bulls took him down
Six bulls from the Cebada Gago ranch, known for raising merciless animals, were surrounded by tame cattle for most of the 850-meter route to the bullring as runners scrambled to steer clear of their horns throughout the two minute, 41-second run
A 40-year-old man from the northern Spanish province of La Rioja was also gored in the left leg during Sunday’s run
An 18-year-old from San Sebastian and a 23-year-old from Barcelona were also taken to hospital with head wounds
One of the fighting bulls fell early on and another became separated from the pack towards the end, causing panic and at least one goring when it charged at some racers before being ushered into a pen
One of the people rushed to hospital with head injuries was taken away from the scene unconscious, but the hospital spokesman said he had come round in the ambulance
A spokesman for Pamplona’s Hospital Complex initially said they had received only one man who had been gored, in his left leg, confirming another two patients had been brought to the hospital with head injuries.
One of the people rushed to hospital with head injuries was taken away from the scene unconscious, but the hospital spokesman said he had come round in the ambulance.
It was not immediately clear if one of the gore victims was the man caught unawares from behind, whose jeans were ripped at the top of his leg as he was lifted up in the air on the end of the bull’s horn and dumped on the cobbles.
Red Cross spokesman José Aldaba says the most seriously injured were treated Sunday at the main regional hospital following the race.
Five more people were injured during the second day of bull runs on Monday, including two men and a woman who were taken to hospital with head injuries or severe bruises, according to a hospital spokesman in Pamplona.
Another runner was treated for bruises, and a fifth was gored in the back by a horn but did not need hospital treatment.
Sunday’s opening erupted with controversy after animal rights campaigners flooded the arena of one of the first bull fight’s when a bull was speared to death.
Sunday morning’s run was the first of the eight bulls runs over the annual nine-day festival, known in Spain as San Fermin
People at the festival flee in terror as a bull runs down a street during the bull run in the controversial Pamplona celebration
A participant is tossed by a heifer bull during the first bullrun, where they are released at 8am every morning of the festival
Each day, bulls are run in the morning and killed in afternoon bullfights. A man is seen trying to escape a charging bull
A reveller jumps over a heifer in the bullring during the second day of the San Fermin Running of the Bulls festival
Six additional bull runs will be held over later this week during the annual festival, known in Spain as San Fermin.
The nine-day San Fermin fiesta, which kicked off yesterday at midday with the traditional ‘chupinazo’, draws around one million visitors annually. It was made famous by 1926 Ernest Hemingway novel ‘The Sun Also Rises’.
Each day, bulls are run in the morning and killed in afternoon bullfights.
But it is the eight morning runs, called encierros in Spanish, that form the highlight of the festival.
Most revellers party all day – and often all night – with many getting little sleep and sometimes none at all before watching the 8am encierros behind the safety of wooden barriers.
Party-goers wearing traditional red and white were quickly soaked in sangria as the event got underway.
Sixteen people have been killed at the annual festival since officials began recording fatalities in 1910.
The most recent death was in 2009 when 27-year-old Daniel Jimeno, from Madrid, was gored in the neck by a bull called Capuchino.
Several foreigners, from Australians to Americans through to Brits and Irish, are normally among the between 200 and 300 people injured each year during the bull runs.
Do you know the American victims of the Pamplona bull run? Send tips to megan.sheets@mailonline.com.
A brown heifer bull tosses a reveller to the ground as a packed crowd watches on from inside and around the arena
Red Cross spokesman José Aldaba says the most seriously injured were treated Sunday at the main regional hospital
As a bull drops down onto its front to hooves, a reveller’s body is left in a contorted position after being struck by the beast
A wild cow is seen entering the bullring at the end of the 850-meter run on Monday, the second day of the festival
Runners are seen crowding along the sides of Pamplona’s narrow streets as the steers plow through
A group of participants garbed in red and white formed a human wall and cover their heads as a heifer bull leaps over
Revellers watch as others run with a heifer in the bullring during the second day of the San Fermin Running of the Bulls
he annual Fiesta de San Fermin, made famous by the 1926 novel of US writer Ernest Hemmingway entitled ‘The Sun Also Rises’, involves the daily running of the bulls through the historic heart of Pamplona to the bull ring
Several foreigners, from Australians to Americans to Brits to Irishmen, are normally among the injured each year
Revellers hold a rolled newspaper as they sing a song to San Fermin on Santo Domingo street ahead of the first run on Sunday