PAMPLONA, Spain (REUTERS) - Eight people were taken to hospital with minor injuries, though no one was gored on Thursday (July 14) during the last bull run of the nine-day San Fermin festival in the northern city of Pamplona.

Thousands of runners travel from all over the world to take part in the 875-m race, in which white-shirted, red scarved runners are chased by specially bred fighting bulls through the narrow streets of the mediaeval city.

This year's festival left a total of eleven runners gored, with the worst day being July 8 when six people were caught on the horns of the half-tonne animals, though there were no fatalities.

Injuries during the run are common but it has been seven years since the last death in Pamplona when a Madrid man, Daniel Jimeno Romero, 27, was gored in the neck.

While Pamplona is the best known of the bull-runs in Spain and was made famous world wide after featuring in Ernest Hemingway's 1926 novel "The Sun Also Rises", smaller summer runs are conducted throughout the country.

This year, in the south-eastern village of Pedreguer near Valencia, a 28-year-old Spaniard was killed during a local bull-run. Professional bull fighter Victor Barrio, 29, was fatally gored live on national television on Saturday after the bull's horn pierced his chest during a tournament in the eastern region of Aragon.

The run on Thursday in Pamplona lasted 2 minutes 20 seconds and included bulls from the Miura ranch.