Six Pamplona bull-runners have been rushed to hospital with injuries after being trampled by the rampaging animals on the first day of the famous Running of the Bulls festival in northern Spain.
Medics confirmed the casualty toll half an hour after runners risked their lives this morning putting themselves in front of six fighting bulls led by six steers as they sprinted along the half-mile run through the streets of Pamplona’s old town.
The famous festival in the northern Spanish town kicked off at midday yesterday with the traditional San Fermin opening ceremony called the Chupinazo.
But two of the six fighting bulls became detached from the rest of the group shortly after ranchers let them out of their pens.
The animals, from the Fuente Ymbro farm in Spain’s south-west province of Cadiz, included one called Zalagarda which is the heaviest of this year’s bull runs and weighs in at a whopping 610 kilos which is 96 stone.
According to El Pais, five people suffered bruises and one suffered a leg injury, although it has not been specified whether it was the result of a goring.
The nationalities of those hurt today is not yet known. All are thought to be men.
During the festival, thousands of revellers dressed in the traditional white outfits with a red bandana around their necks ending up soaked in wine and sangria.
Six people have been rushed to hospital with injuries on the first day of the famous Running of the Bulls festival in Spain
A participant is hit by a young cow in the bullring after the first ‘encierro’ (bull-run) of the San Fermin festival in Pamplona, northern Spain, on July 7, 2025
A participant falls ahead of a bull during the first ‘encierro’ (bull-run) of the San Fermin festival in Pamplona
A mozo or runner takes part in the first running of the bulls of the Sanfermines festival in Pamplona
Images showed onlookers lining the streets and cheering as the bulls trampled past among the runners.
‘As usual, the straight stretch of this street was crowded with young men and a few young women, many of whom were run over, fell, and trampled by bulls and steers,’ reported El Pais.
This morning’s 8am run, which lasted two minutes 37 seconds and ended with the animals being guided into pens after reaching the town’s bull ring, was the first of eight so-called encierros which form the highlight of the festival.
Last year, five runners were left injured on the seventh day of the festival.
A 37-year-old man from Beriain near Pamplona suffered the only gore injury, said to have been to his palate.
The other five casualties included a 54-year-old man from New York. All six runners who needed hospital treatment were males.
And in 2023, six people were also left injured in the first race, none of them seriously, medics said at the time.
Sixteen people have been killed during the bull runs at the annual festival, which finishes on July 14 and was made famous by 1926 Ernest Hemingway novel ‘The Sun Also Rises’, since records began in 1910.
Revellers sprint during the Encierro (running of the bulls), at the Mercaderes corner, during the San Fermin festival
Revellers run with bulls from Fuente Ymbro ranch during the first day of the running of the bulls
This morning’s 8am run lasted two minutes 37 seconds and ended with the animals being guided into pens after reaching the town’s bull ring
Sixteen people have been killed during the bull runs at the annual festival, which finishes on July 14 and was made famous by 1926 Ernest Hemingway novel ‘The Sun Also Rises’
Thousands of people every year attend the week-long festival
Six bulls are released at 8am every day to run from their corral to the bullring through the narrow streets of the old town while runners ahead of them try to stay close to the bulls without falling over or being gored
The most recent death was in 2009 when 27-year-old Daniel Jimeno, from Madrid, was gored in the neck by a bull called Capuchino.
Several foreigners, from Australians to Americans through to Brits and Irish, are normally among the injured.
Between 200 and 300 people are usually left injured each year at the festival during the bull runs.
The first of the eight encierros last year took place four hours after a San Fermin reveller collapsed and died.
Police rushed to the scene and tried to save the 40-year-old man but were unable to resuscitate him.
Animal rights activists campaign against the festival every year, saying it is cruel to animals who are goaded and then killed in front of baying crowds.