Bullfighter and runner die, two others gored in Spanish bull festivals

MADRID: A bullfighter and a man participating in a village bull-run were killed in Spain on Saturday, while another two men were gored by the animals at the world-famous festival in the town of Pamplona.

Victor Barrio, a 29-year-old professional bullfighter, was killed when a bull´s horn pierced his chest in front of spectators as he competed in a fight in the town of Teruel in the eastern region of Aragon.

His death, shown live on television, was confirmed on the website of Madrid´s Las Ventas bullring, where Barrio began as an apprentice bullfighter in 2010. He is the first Spanish bullfighter to die in a ring since the turn of the century.

In the southeastern village of Pedreguer near Valencia, a 28-year-old Spaniard was killed during a bull-run, in which people risk life and limb by racing alongside specially-bred fighting bulls through narrow streets.

A bull´s horn pierced his lung and heart as he was trying to help another runner during the event, in which a man was killed last year, a spokesman for the regional government said.

Many of Spain´s towns hold summer festivals involving bulls, and several people die each year.

The San Fermin festival, in which bulls chase red-scarved runners through Pamplona´s cobbled streets during nine days of events, attracts thousands of revellers from Spain and overseas.

In Saturday´s run there, a 33-year-old Japanese man was gored in the chest and a 24-year-old Spanish man in the arm, while 12 others suffered minor injuries, the local government said on its website.

The Japanese man was in a stable condition in hospital, a spokesman for the festival said.

The four-minute run in Pamplona featured six bulls from the Jose Escolar ranch, one of which separated from the rest and caused panic among the runners.

The daily bull-run along an 825-metre stretch of narrow streets in Pamplona´s old town starts at 8 a.
m.
(0600 GMT) and usually lasts between three and five minutes.
There are eight runs in total during the festival.
Over the past century 15 people have died in Pamplona´s event, which dates back hundreds of years, according to a count on the unofficial San Fermin website.
The last death was recorded in 2009.