PAMPLONA, Spain (AP) — Spain’s famed San Fermin festival concluded with two gorings during the eighth and final bull run held on Tuesday.
An 18-year-old from Pamplona was gored in his thigh on the first turn of the course, when a bull plowed into a small group of scrambling runners, ramming two men into the cobblestones and flipping a third over its horns.
A 46-year-old man from central Spain took a horn in his thorax on the final stretch where the course narrows upon entering the bull ring where the bulls will be killed by bull fighters later in the day.
Both men were taken to a local hospital for care. A further eight runners, including an 86-year-old British man, needed medical treatment for minor injuries.
The six fighting bulls and accompanying steers need just two-and-a-half minutes to complete the 875-meter (957-yard) course from the pin to the bull ring. Their speed often catches runners by surprise with over a thousand people crammed into the narrow street course.
The last death at San Fermin’s bull runs occurred in 2009, but gorings and broken bones are common, partly due to the large number of novice bull runners and foreign tourists who join the experienced locals. Many injuries are from falls caused by panicking runners.
This year’s festival comes 100 years since the publication of Ernest Hemingway’s novel “The Sun Also Rises,” which launched the San Fermin festival to international fame.
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