Pamplona, Spain -
A straggling half-ton bull skewered two men on Wednesday as
it turned its horns on panicked daredevils in a bull-run on the rain-moistened
streets of Spain's northern city of Pamplona.
Another four runners were taken to hospital with bruises as
they tripped over each other while
racing ahead of six fighting bulls and six
steers in the annual San Fermin festival, regional health authorities said.
One bull lagged behind the pack just before entering the
city's bull ring and confronted frightened runners, dressed in traditional
white clothes with red scarves around their necks.
At one point, the beast charged a man who had fallen and was
cowering by a wooden fence. Another runner tried to coax the sharp-horned
fighting bull away by pulling on its tail.
A 32-year-old American from Chicago was gored in the right
thigh and a 35-year-old Spanish man was gored in the chest before the bull was
finally guided away to finish the run.
American Bill Hillmann is carried on a stretcher after being
gored by the bull. Picture: MJ Arranz
Associated Press
They were both in serious condition in hospital, officials
said.
A divided pack of bulls presents one of the greatest dangers
in the bull runs that are the centrepiece of this centuries-old festival,
leaving the huge animals disoriented and irritated by crowds composed of
thousands of adrenaline-charged - and often alcohol-fuelled - thrill-seekers.
The fighting bulls from the Victoriano del Rio ranch took
three minutes and 23 seconds to cover the 850m course from a holding pen to
Pamplona bull ring, the longest time of the three daily bull runs held so far
this year.
The bulls will face matadors and death in the afternoon in
the bull ring.
In the first bull run of the festival, on Monday, a bull
gored one 52-year-old Spaniard in the groin area. The man remains in hospital
but his injury was not considered serious.
The San Fermin festival, a heady nine-day mix of partying
and adrenaline-chasing, draws hundreds of thousands of people from around the
world to Pamplona, a city of around 300 000.
Fifteen people have been killed in the bull runs since
records began in 1911. The most recent death occurred five years ago when a
bull gored a 27-year-old Spaniard in the neck, heart and lungs. - Sapa-AFP
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