14 hurt in bulls stampede

12 July 2004

PAMPLONA — At least 14 people were injured Monday during the running of the bulls festival, hospital officials said.

The injured included two US citizens, one French national and a Colombian, officials said.

Eight of those injured — including one of the two US visitors, the Frenchman and the Columbian — were gored by the bulls as they hurtled through the streets.

Some of those injured by the animals’ horns, including two Spaniards, had to have emergency medical treatment where they fell.

Monday’s event was the sixth during the event, known locally as the San Fermin festival. It runs until Wednesday.

The daily 825-metre (half-mile) stampede by the bulls through the crowded streets terminates at the city’s arena, where the animals then take part in the traditional sport of bullfighting.

The festival also features concerts and round-the-clock drinking.

It was made internationally famous by the American writer Ernest Hemingway,who described it in his 1926 novel “The Sun also Rises.”

The event, which regularly draws protests from animal rights groups, has resulted in 14 deaths of spectators since records began in 1911.

Nobody has so far been killed during this year’s event.

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]

Subject: Spanish news