The casualties are piling up as Pamplona's San Fermin Festival marks its second day with an immensely popular bull run attended by thousands of thrill-seekers. The latest victims include an Australian, a Frenchman and a local who were gored after the end of the run.
The unidentified individuals were rushed to a nearby hospital and treated for their injuries, which ranged from damaged ribs and gored groin and thigh to bruises, ABC News reported.
The week-long San Fermin festival involves letting six half-ton bulls run amok in Pamplona's streets everyday. People seeking to test their bravery run alongside as they steer the enraged animals in narrow streets in a route that begins in a holding pen and ends at the city's bull ring, according to the Mirror. The bulls are slaughtered by performing matadors in bullfights at the end of the day. The latest "running of the bulls" on Wednesday went on for more than two minutes.
Last Tuesday, an American participating in the opening race ended up in the hospital after he was gored in the armpit. Mike Webster, 38, is an occupational therapist in Florida and is staying in Pamplona for the 38th time. He has participated in the race for 11 years.
Bull runs are staples in summer festivals across Spain. Pamplona's own was made popular in Ernest Hemingway's novel "The Sun Also Rises," and it attracts thousands of tourists from around the world. Racing bulls are also subject of enthusiastic reportage in the national media. The Spanish daily El Pais, for instance, hailed Fastuoso, one of the bulls in the Tuesday race, as "particularly feisty," having barrelled down tightly packed streets, sending people cowering behind shops and leaving broken water pipes, The Guardian reported.
The violent bull run can sometimes prove fatal. Last June 24, for instance, a man died after getting gored in the town of Coria, ABC News reported.
The San Fermin Festival has so far claimed fifteen deaths since the 1900s, according to records obtained by the Guardian.
