The sound of hooves and the cheers of revellers were strangely missing in Pamplona on Tuesday, as the Spanish city's world-famous bull-running festival became another victim of the coronavirus.

A Reuters photographer juxtaposed a picture of a reveller sprinting from a bull at last year's San Fermin festival, with the now empty street, in memory of the typical crowds during the fiesta.

Usually, revellers from all over the globe would pack the streets to watch or partake in the bull runs.

Though it has survived previous pandemics, this year's event was cancelled in April as Spain's coronavirus outbreak spiralled out of control, NBC News reported.

Made famous by Ernest Hemingway's 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises, the festival usually draws hundreds of thousands of people to drink, dance and race through the streets pursued by six fighting bulls.

Although no live bull runs will happen this year, the state broadcaster TVE will play reruns from previous years every morning.