Spaniard gored in San Fermin festival bull-run

[July 08, 2008]  PAMPLONA, Spain (AP) -- The running of the bulls through Pamplona on Tuesday left one man gored and four slightly injured during the annual San Fermin festival, the Spanish Red Cross said.

Hundreds of people and six fighting bulls, accompanied by steer, sprinted the half-mile (850-meter) route through cobblestone streets in just over two minutes, a relatively clean and fast run by San Fermin standards.

One Spaniard was gored in the thigh and treated at a city hospital, but was not in serious condition, the Red Cross said. Four other Spaniards were treated for bruises.

The first run on Monday took over four minutes and injured 13 people. None of them were gored.

The runs to the city bullring take place at 8 a.m. daily and are the highlight of a centuries-old festival that became world famous with Ernest Hemingway's 1926 novel "The Sun Also Rises."

Professional matadors fight, and invariably kill, the bulls each afternoon of the festival.

The fiesta, which ends July 14, is known also for its all-night street parties.

Tuesday's run used bulls from the southern Cebada Gago ranch, considered among the most dangerous in San Fermin. In 27 years, they have gored more than 35 people.

The festival attracts tens of thousands of foreigners.

One runner from Japan, Shinichi Hitano, 30, stumbled and fell during the run Tuesday but was uninjured.

"I suddenly found myself on the ground with everyone trying to jump over me," he told The Associated Press. "I knew the bulls were coming so I covered my head. Luckily nothing happened."

It was the first time for Greg Floris, 40 from Florida.

"It was an exhilarating flash," he said. "They just zipped past us at such speed."

Fourteen runners have died in the running of the bulls since record-keeping began in 1924.

The last fatality from a goring was a 22-year-old American, Matthew Tassio, in 1995. In 2003, a 63-year-old Pamplona native, Fermin Etxeberri, was trampled in the head by a bull and died after spending several months in a coma.

On Sunday, a 23-year-old Irishman died after falling from an ancient wall that encircles the old quarter of Pamplona.

[Associated Press; By JORGE SAINZ]

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