A 56-year-old man has become the third person to die within 24 hours in bull gorings at
popular Spanish festivals.
Medics have confirmed the latest casualty lost his fight for life in hospital after being rushed to intensive care with head and gore injuries on July 12 from an event in Picassent near the east coast city of Valencia.
The local town hall said yesterday it had decreed a day of mourning after learning of the man’s death.
On Tuesday it emerged a 50-year-old man named as Josep Antoni Garcia Arnau had died at another Valencia hospital from injuries he suffered after being up-ended by a bull at a festival in Meliana a 40-minute drive north of Picassent.
He was diagnosed with seven broken ribs and one of the blows he suffered is said to have penetrated one of his lungs and caused a build-up of blood which eventually claimed his life.
On Monday it was confirmed a Frenchman aged 64 had died in hospital nine days after being gored during an annual festival in Pedreguer on the Costa Blanca near the popular holiday resort of Denia.
All three men had been taking part in annual events known locally as Bous Al Carrer, which literally means Bulls on the Street.
They were cancelled at the height of the coronavirus pandemic but the Spanish festival calendar is now back to normal.
The famous San Fermin festival in the northern city of Pamplona, known internationally as the Running of the Bulls, was held for the first time in two years earlier this month.
No-one was killed but several revellers suffered gore injuries along the half-mile course through the old town as they tried to outrun the bulls before they were guided into pens at the back of the bullring.
Thousands narrowly avoided being gored as the huge animals were released in the streets in front of large crowds.
Six Spaniards and a Frenchman were taken to hospital for treatment following this morning's event.
Luckily, none of them were seriously hurt, amid initial fears they had been gored.
Several runners were stomped or bowled over by the six bulls and the six tame oxen that blitzed through the narrow, twisting streets of Pamplona’s old quarter in two and a half minutes.
The festival became known to the English-speaking world through Ernest Hemingway's 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises, and has become very popular, drawing in huge numbers of visitors.
Last week, horrifying footage emerged showing a rampaging bull charging and stamping on a helpless woman at a rodeo gone wrong.
Others were thrown around like rag dolls by the raged animal at the Dinosaur Roundup Rodeo in Utah, US.
The event began with several people racing across an arena wearing inflatable bubbles.
But the situation turned dangerous when a bull was released, leaving the audience gasping in horror as it immediately charged two of the racers and tossed them into the air.
The bull then floored another three victims before turning its attention to a woman still struggling to stand after its last attack.
In the horrifying moments that followed, the bull used its horns to attack the woman before trampling her and moving away.
Spectator Emma said the event was introduced as “bubble ball bull racing” and it seemed harmless enough at first.
