1 dead at Pamplona; 1st goring death since '95

[July 10, 2009]  PAMPLONA, Spain (AP) -- A charging bull gored a young Spanish man to death Friday at Pamplona's San Fermin festival, the first such fatality in nearly 15 years. Nine others were injured in a particularly dangerous and chaotic chapter of the running of the bulls.

Pamplona officials identified the man as Daniel Jimeno Romero, 27, from the Madrid suburbs of Alcala de Henares. He was on vacation with his parents and girlfriend, who identified him.

The San Fermin festival Web site said Jimeno Romero was gored in the neck and lung during a run in which a rogue bull named Capuchino separated from the pack, which is among the worst things that can happen at Spain's most popular fiesta.

Isolated bulls are more likely to get disoriented and start charging at people.

Photographs showed Jimeno Romero lying on a stretcher moments after the goring, his face and neck stained with blood and his eyes only half-open. An emergency medical worker was leaning over him, applying what appeared to be gauze to his neck wound.

Three other people were gored, and six people suffered bumps, bruises and other lesser injuries, said Fernando Boneta, director of Virgen del Camino Hospital.

Among the injured was a 61-year-old American who was struck in the chest and had internal bleeding in his lungs. Doctors said he was in intensive care but that his condition was not considered life-threatening. The man was identified by his initials, E.P.S., but his full name was not released.

Also injured in the run was a 20-year-old from London, and a 24-year-old Argentine. Another American, a 63-year-old identified by the initials K.L., injured an elbow.

The festival ends Tuesday, and there was no indication that the remaining bull runs would be canceled because of the death.

The last fatal goring at the running of the bulls was that of 22-year-old American Matthew Tassio in 1995. In 2003, a 63-year-old Spanish man, Fermin Etxeberri, was trampled in the head by a bull and died after spending months in a coma.

Friday's death raises to 15 the toll since record-keeping began in 1924.

Fatalities are relatively rare and when one occurs, it serves as a reminder that amid all the street parties and revelry associated with San Fermin, running with fighting bulls weighing 1,300 pounds (600 kilograms) or more on cobblestone streets packed with people is a life-risking exercise.

This run, the fourth of eight held at San Fermin, was by far the most perilous of this year's festival. The previous three runs were comparatively placid affairs, with no serious injuries.

The six bulls covering the half-mile (850-meter) course with six accompanying steers tend to mind their own business and keep running as long as they stay in a pack. A bull that gets separated is more likely to get frightened and aggressive, and that is what happened Friday.

Capuchino, a brown, 1,130-pound (515-kilogram) specimen, fell early in the run and ended up on its own.

When it reached a stretch right outside the bullring that marks the end of the course, it started charging right and left, and even ran back the wrong way several times. Runners scurried for safety to wooden barriers along the route as the bull attacked. Herders waving sticks tried in vain to guide it into the ring, even yanking on the animal's tail to turn it around.

This went on for a minute and a half, which is a long time at San Fermin.

At one point the bull picked one man up with its horns and flipped him into the air, then kept going after him as he lay curled up on the ground, covering his face. He got up and ran away, and was apparently not seriously hurt.

"It was a light bull. Its charges were not particularly strong but it moved very fast from left to right," one of the herders, Humberto Miguel, told The Associated Press. "Of the whole pack, it was the one that gave us the most trouble."

The bulls used in Friday's run, from a ranch called Jandilla, have a reputation for being fierce at San Fermin. They hold the record for the most gorings in a single run -- eight, one day in 2004.

The bulls used in the runs face matadors and almost certain death the same afternoon in the Pamplona bullring.

[Associated Press; By ALVARO BARRIENTOS]

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