PAMPLONA, Spain -- The first bull run in three years at the San Fermín festival in the Spanish city of Pamplona took place early Thursday. No one was gored, but several runners endured knocks and hard falls.
The six bulls guided by six tame oxen charged through Pamplona’s streets in around 2 minutes, 35 seconds without provoking too much carnage among the thousands of people cramming the course. Several runners were stomped, trampled or shoved to the cobblestone pavement, but none suffered a skewering by a bull horn.
The Pamplona hospital said that five people needed to be brought in for treatment: one man for a knock to his head due to a fall, a second man with a leg injury, a youth under 18 years old with an arm injury, plus two more people hurt in the bullring where the course ends.
This was the first of eight early morning bull runs that are followed by massive drinking, eating and attending cultural events for the rest of the day.
Eight people were gored during the last festival in 2019 before the pandemic. Sixteen people have died in the bull runs since 1910. The last death occurred in 2009.
The bulls that run each morning are killed in bullfights in the afternoon by professional bullfighters.
The incredibly popular festivities that draw tens of thousands of visitors from around the world were canceled in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic.
