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Spain's San Fermín bull runs wrap up with 35 injured but no deaths

AFP
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Spain's San Fermín bull runs wrap up with 35 injured but no deaths
Six bulls are released at 8:00 a.m. to run from their corral to the bullring through the narrow streets of Pamplona's old town over an 850-metre course, while runners ahead of them try to stay close to the bulls without falling over or being gored. (Photo by ANDER GILLENEA / AFP)

Six men were injured on Friday during the eighth and final bull run of Spain's famed San Fermín festival, bringing to 35 the total number of daredevils wounded during this year's fiesta.

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Five men between the ages of 29 and 61 were taken to hospital to treat bruises of varying degrees of severity, the regional government of Navarre said in a statement.

A sixth man was treated in the infirmary of the northern city of Pamplona's bullring for bruises he suffered during the run, the local branch of the Red Cross said in a tweet.

The bulls from the Miura ranch in the southwestern province of Seville completed the 848.6-metre (928-yard) course from a holding pen to the city bull ring in two minutes and 21 seconds.

Each morning from July 7th to 14th, hundreds of daredevils, many wearing traditional white shirts with red scarves tied around their necks, tested their bravery by running ahead of a pack of bulls through the course set up in the narrow, winding streets of the medieval city.

Participants run ahead of bulls during the "encierro" (bull-run) of the San Fermín festival in Pamplona, northern Spain, on July 14, 2023. (Photo by ANDER GILLENEA / AFP)
 

The bulls face almost certain death in afternoon bullfights featuring Spain's top matadors.

The San Fermín festival, which was made famous by Ernest Hemingway's 1926 novel "The Sun Also Rises", draws people from around the world.

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Three men who took part in this year's bull runs were gored, including a 58-year-old from the Dutch Caribbean island of Curacao.

Six Americans and a British and French national were among the other foreigners injured this year.

Although the runs are over, the festival's closing ceremony will take place later at midnight (2200 GMT).

Sixteen people have been killed in the bull runs since records started in 1911. The last death was in 2009 when a bull gored a 27-year-old Spaniard in the neck, heart and lungs.

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