Sunday 12 July 2009

Pamplona Bull Run - The Horns Of Death

The Pamplona bull run is the highlight of the spectacular Fiesta de San Fermin. The event is held annually from 6-14 July. Every morning hundreds of intrepid locals and visitors risk their lives to outpace galloping bulls as they run through the streets towards the bullring.
The tradition has been part of Spanish cultural history since the 1600s. There are three parts to the run, which vary in difficulty. Santo Domingo is a fast and furious challenge. Even more dangerous is the corner of Mercaderes. The rest takes on Estafeta, the easiest part of this treacherous course.
Only the brave and foolhardy choose to run in front of the bulls. This bull run in particular is now fiercely opposed by animal rights campaigners and both bulls and humans can end up injured.
During last Friday's bull run a 27-year-old Spaniard, Daniel Jimeno Romero, from Alcala de Henares, a small town outside Madrid, was gored to death.
Mr Romero died almost instantly after being gored in the neck - the first fatality in nearly 15 years at Pamplona's running of the bulls. During the same run a Briton. Alex Short, narrowly escaped death after being tossed in the air and gored in the leg. Short, a geography student, is recovering in hospital.
Below is a series of pictures published by the Daily Mail online, showing the full brutality of the event.
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British student Alex Short is scooped up and
tossed to the ground.
The bull threatens to gore Mr Short but
it left after being distracted.
A bull runner is gored in the back.
A bull leaps over crouching 'mozos' on Friday.
Medical teams attend to runners wounded on the fouth
day of the running of the bulls of Pamplona.

A runner is tossed by a Jandilla fighting bull.