2 Americans gored in Pamplona’s second bull run of 2017
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Reporting from PAMPLONA, Spain — Two Americans were gored, and several other people were injured Saturday during the second running of the bulls at this year’s San Fermin festival in the northern Spanish city of Pamplona, officials said.
The regional government of Navarra said a 22-year-old American man identified with the initials J.C. was in serious condition at a nearby hospital after being gored. A 35-year-old American identified as B.H. was in stable condition after being gored.
Televised images showed a bull thrusting its horn into a man’s buttocks before flipping him into the street, while another man’s arm was impaled and he was dragged for several yards before the bull flung him off and stormed over him.
Three other Americans, two Frenchmen and three Spaniards — all men — needed treatment at the hospital for injuries received during the frantic and crowded run of thrill seekers.
On Friday, two Americans and a Spaniard were gored on the first running. All three were treated for injuries that were considered not life-threatening.
The first part of Saturday’s run was particularly dangerous, with the bulls plowing into the slower-moving crowds, knocking many runners down as they maneuvered through the narrow streets and wooden barricades.
The bulls from the ranch of Jose Escolar confirmed their reputation as being unpredictable. They completed the 930-yard cobbled-street course in just over four minutes — well over the average of three minutes — because one bull broke away from the rest and turned around.
The lone bull had to be guided through the course by a small group of castrated bulls trained to accompany rogue bulls to the ring, where they will face almost certain death later in a bullfight.
This was the third consecutive annual appearance by bulls from the Jose Escolar ranch, and the third in which one of the six bulls has separated from the pack.
The nine-day San Fermin fiesta attracts tens of thousands of partygoers from Spain and abroad. It was popularized by Nobel Literature laureate Ernest Hemingway’s 1926 novel “The Sun Also Rises.”
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