MADRID (REUTERS) - A Spanish matador has undergone surgery on deep puncture wounds in his throat and leg after being gored by a bull at Madrid's famed Las Ventas bullring on Sunday (April 2).

Daniel Garcia Navarrete was knocked off his feet after being gored in the leg by the 460 kg bull, who then went for his throat as he lay on the ground covering his face.

Las Ventas officials said the injuries were 15cm deep in the throat and 10cm into the leg.

The animal tossed Navarrete around the ring before other matadors came to his rescue and warned the animal off in an incident witnessed by more than 10,000 people at Spain's largest bullring.

"There was blood on his neck and a hole in his thigh," one spectator said. "The bull was shaking him about like a rag doll."

Navarrete, from the southern Spanish city of Jaen, was hurriedly carried away by the other matadors and underwent surgery on Sunday. He was resting in hospital on Monday, the Las Ventas bullring said in a statement.

Bullfighting is a centuries-old tradition in Spain and remains popular, but some local authorities have clamped down on fights amid a growing animal rights movement against the practice.