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Goring in Pamplona
A runner was gored in the face during a chaotic bull run at Spain’s San Fermin festival on Saturday in Pamplona, with six bulls and accompanying steers charging through a narrow street course packed with thrill-seekers.
“One runner was gored in the face and many more were fortunate to not be seriously injured”
The run lasted two-and-a-half minutes from the pen to the bull ring, where bullfighters will kill the bulls later in the day, and the huge animals knocked down bodies to the cobblestones as stumbling runners caused several pileups.
The University of Navarra Hospital said one runner was pierced by a horn in the face and 12 more people needed medical treatment for an assortment of knocks.
AP reported that a black bull broke away from the pack early in the 875-meter run and plowed into a group of people, smacking one full in the side of the face with a horn.
CBS News similarly said the horn strike happened during the same chaotic run, while noting that 12 more people required medical treatment for injuries.
Medical treatment and timeline
Sky News said the runner was gored in the face while 12 more people required medical treatment for injuries, and it described bodies piled across the cobblestones during the two-and-a-half-minute run from the pen to the bull ring.
The Associated Press said it was not clear if the black bull’s horn strike was the moment of the goring, as many runners appeared completely unaware when bulls were breathing down their necks.
The Independent reported that the last death at San Fermin’s bull runs occurred in 2009, while noting that gorings and broken bones are common partly due to the large number of novice bull runners and foreign tourists joining experienced locals.
In Pamplona, the fifth morning run of the eight-day festival took place on Saturday, and the run’s distance was described as 875 meters (957 yards) by AP and CBS.
The Independent also framed the event within the festival’s 100-year milestone tied to Ernest Hemingway’s novel “The Sun Also Rises,” which it said launched the San Fermin festival to international fame.
Festival stakes and aftermath
The run’s injuries and pileups underscored the festival’s physical risk, with AP describing how the huge animals knocked down bodies to the cobblestones and stumbling runners caused several pileups during the dash to the bull ring.
“Saturday's fifth encierro of the San Fermín festival left one runner gored and 12 more needing treatment”
The Independent said Americans are the leading group of foreigners who run at the San Fermin festival, adding that in 2022, 16% of bull runners were Americans, the largest percentage among foreigners and four times more than those from neighboring France, according to Pamplona's City Hall.
Marathon Handbook said the fifth encierro left one runner gored and 12 more needing treatment, capping a bruising 24 hours in Pamplona after Friday’s fourth run left nine people injured, five of whom went to hospital, according to Euronews.
AP noted that Saturday’s was the fifth morning run of the eight-day festival, with three more mornings of bulls, cobblestones, and runners betting their luck on Pamplona’s streets.
As the festival continued toward later bullfighting that day, the University of Navarra Hospital’s count of one horn goring and 12 medical treatments remained the clearest quantified impact in the accounts.
