Almost 100 injured in first bull run in Pamplona

Jul 7, 2007, 20:16 GMT

Pamplona, Spain - Around 97 people were injured, one seriously, Saturday in the first bull run of the season in Pamplona, northern Spain during the annual San Fermin festival.

A 36-year-old Australian was speared in the buttocks and had to undergo emergency surgery, rescue services said. Five other participants in the potentially fatal bull run were also hospitalised.

The two-minute chase was particularly risky as large crowds had lined the route. Around 2,000 runners jostled with each other and many tripped and fell.

The nine-day festival celebrated in honour of the city's patron Saint Fermin attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors annually. Many come to participate in the bull runs, which were made famous by Ernest Hemingway's 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises.

Around half a dozen fighting bulls were let loose Saturday on the winding streets of the old city centre.

Daredevil men known as mozos run alongside the bulls, armed with nothing but folded newspapers. The animals make a 825-metre dash for the bullring, where they are killed in an evening bullfight.

The celebrations also feature concerts and other festive acts which will number more than 400 this year.

The bull runs have come under criticism from animal rights campaigners, hundreds of whom demonstrated in Pamplona on Thursday.

The bull runs have claimed 14 lives since 1924. Hundreds of participants are injured every year.