Pamplona bull run: Three runners gored, making eight in all this year

Runners speared in leg, arm and armpit as animal breaks from pack racing towards bullring

A man is caught by a bull's horn and trapped against a wall at the last run of this year's festival (EPA)

Three people were gored at the final bull run at the annual Pamplona festival in Spain, bringing this year’s total gorings to eight.

A bull flipped one runner over its horns and slammed him onto the cobblestone street, before clipping another two who were trapped against a wall.

The injuries happened during the San Fermin festival, when people run alongside bulls through twisting streets to a bullring, where the animals were speared to death.

A bull broke from the pack of six during the run, prompting panic among the runners, and gored two Australians and a Spaniard, health officials said.

The man who had been tossed by the chocolate-coloured bull called Rabanero was gored in the leg, while another man was gored in the right arm and a third in the armpit, according to a hospital spokesman.

He said the wounds were not life-threatening.

The Red Cross reported several other injuries from people being knocked by bulls and steers, or from runners tumbling out of the way.

This year’s previous seven bull runs resulted in five people being gored – three Spaniards and two Americans.

Sixteen people have died in Pamplona’s bull runs since 1910, the last one in 2009.

The San Fermin fiesta attracts an estimated million party-goers each year. Many revellers stay up all night or rise early enough to watch from balconies or barricades.

Bullfights are protected under the Spanish constitution as part of the country’s cultural heritage.

The bull runs are controversial because the animals are said to be terrified by the race, then “tortured” in the bullring.

Animal-rights group Peta says at least 48 bulls a year at Pamplona suffer a slow, painful death as they are repeatedly stabbed.

“Many bulls are paralysed but still conscious as their ears or tails are cut off as trophies,” according to the group.

Support for bullfights that kill about 7,000 animals a year in Spain is waning, with 56 per cent fewer official fights last year than in 2007.