SPAIN: 20 INJURED AFTER BULLFIGHTING FANS RISK LIFE & LIMB AT PAMPLONA'S WORLD FAMOUS RUNNING OF THE BULLS FESTIVAL

Record ID: 376259

  • Title: SPAIN: 20 INJURED AFTER BULLFIGHTING FANS RISK LIFE & LIMB AT PAMPLONA'S WORLD FAMOUS RUNNING OF THE BULLS FESTIVAL
  • Date: 7th July 2000
  • Summary: PAMPLONA, SPAIN (JULY 7, 2000)(REUTERS) 1. SLV RUNNERS BY CORRAL WHERE BULLS ARE KEPT 0.04 2. SV (SOUNDBITE) (English) PATRICK DRISCOLL FROM BOSTON (25) SAYING: "Just before the start of the run I am little nervous. I have never seen a bull before, they are big animals." 0.14 3. SV (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) THREE FOREIGNERS FROM ARGENTINA S
  • Embargoed: 22nd July 2000 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: PAMPLONA, SPAIN
  • Country: Spain
  • Reuters ID: LVA5DUE7J0TPYP4PVX91G81RPBRY
  • Story Text: Twenty people have been injured after hundreds of
    bullfighting fans risked life and limb at Pamplona's
    world-famous running of the bulls festival.



    Experienced local runners and foreign tourists packed
    the city's narrow cobblestone streets on Friday (July 7) for
    the first run of the San Fermin festival, an eight-day orgy of
    wine and bravado in honour of Pamplona's patron saint.

    Emergency workers said only two men, both Spaniards, were
    trampled badly enough by the charging bulls to require
    treatment at a local hospital.

    One suffered a head injury and the other an elbow injury
    but neither was considered serious. Other runners sustained
    only cuts and bruises.

    Commentators who analysed the mad, 825-metre (yard)
    stampede as it was broadcast live on Spanish television called
    it one of the smoothest, safest runs in recent memory.

    The event, made famous by the Ernest Hemingway novel The
    Sun Also Rises, draws hundreds of thousands of tourists to
    Pamplona each year.

    Among the first-time runners this year was Chuck McRae,
    60, a justice on the Mississippi state Supreme Court. He
    escaped unharmed.

    "The run was exciting. You get up on what we call the edge
    in America," McRae said.

    "That's when your adrenaline is running and you don't
    know what is going happen.

    "After it is over you feel that you have survived, that
    you got through it," he said.

    Hundreds of runners dressed in the traditional white with
    red scarves took part, trying to avoid the six prime fighting
    bulls and 11 steer included to prod the bulls along.

    The bulls set off each morning on a stampede from a corral
    to an outdoor arena where they will be killed by matadors
    later in the day. The fastest bulls completed Friday's run in
    two minutes, 20 seconds.

    The last human death came in 1995, when a 22-year-old
    American was gored.

    Daniel Priest, 22, of Florida, said he had been up for 24
    hours when he decided to size up the bulls ahead of the run.

    "I'm pretty confident, but by coming around here and looking
    at them, I'm seeing now how big they are," Priest said.

    "They are a lot bigger than I thought. It kind of freaked
    me out."
    The running of the bulls dates back to 1591, when its
    purpose was purely practical, to move the bulls to the arena.

    But in the 17th century a handful of daring onlookers ran
    the gauntlet in front of the half-tonne beasts for the first
    time, launching a tradition that has endured till today.

    Nowadays, many prepare for the run with liquid courage.

    Forty-one people required medical attention overnight for
    intoxication or falls suffered while drunk, emergency workers
    said.


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