Participants run ahead of bulls during the first "encierro" (bull-run) of the San Fermin festival in Pamplona, northern Spain, on July 7th 2023. (Photo by MIGUEL RIOPA / AFP)
Six people were injured early on Friday, none of them seriously, in the first bull running race of Pamplona's San Fermín festival, medics said.
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"Six people were taken to hospital" for injuries to the face or limbs from falling or being trampled during the first race of the festival in the northern city of Pamplona, Red Cross spokesman Jose Aldaba told Spain's public television.
The bull runs, where thousands turn out to watch or join a group of half-tonne bulls racing through narrow cobbled streets, traditionally begin on July 7 and take place every morning at 8:00 am (0600 GMT) for eight days.
Thousands of people every year attend the week-long festival and its famous 'encierros'. (Photo by MIGUEL RIOPA / AFP)
"None of the injuries seem to be serious," Aldaba said.
"For a July 7th, which is still one of the most crowded, it has been a 'clean' run."
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Bull-running events are a highlight of summer festivities across Spain, with the best known being the San Fermín festival which was made famous by Ernest Hemingway's 1926 novel "The Sun Also Rises".
Six bulls are released at 8:00 a.m. evey day to run from their corral to the bullring through the narrow streets of the old town over an 850 meters (yard) course while runners ahead of them try to stay close to the bulls without falling over or being gored. (Photo by CESAR MANSO / AFP)
Sixteen people have died in the San Fermín bull runs since 1911. The last death occurred in 2009 when a bull gored a 27-year-old Spaniard.
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Thousands of people every year attend the week-long festival and its famous 'encierros'. (Photo by MIGUEL RIOPA / AFP)
Six bulls are released at 8:00 a.m. evey day to run from their corral to the bullring through the narrow streets of the old town over an 850 meters (yard) course while runners ahead of them try to stay close to the bulls without falling over or being gored. (Photo by CESAR MANSO / AFP)
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