57 gored or bruised during Spain’s San Fermin bull runs
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Runners being chased by bulls during the final bull run of the San Fermin festival in Pamplona, Navarra, northern Spain, on July 14.
PHOTO: EPA
- A total of 57 people were injured during the 2026 San Fermin bull runs, including 10 on the final day, with several suffering gore wounds.
- The runs cover an 848.6-m course through Pamplona's streets, ending at the city bull ring in just over two minutes.
- The festival, famous worldwide and featured in Hemingway's novel, has caused 16 deaths since 1911, with the last in 2009.
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PAMPLONA, Spain – Ten men suffered injuries on July 14 during the eighth and final bull run of Spain’s famed San Fermin festival, bringing the total number of daredevils injured during the 2026 edition to 57.
An 18-year-old man suffered a gore wound to the thigh and a 46-year-old man was gored in the chest, while the remaining eight were taken to hospital with bruises of varying severity, according to a statement by the Navarre regional government.
The bulls completed the 848.6m course from a holding pen to the city bull ring in 2min 25sec.
Each morning for eight days, hundreds of daredevils, many wearing traditional white shirts with red scarves tied around their necks, tested their bravery by running ahead of a pack of bulls through the narrow, winding streets of the mediaeval city. The vast majority are men.
The bulls face almost certain death in afternoon bullfights featuring Spain’s top matadors.
The San Fermin festival, which was made famous by Ernest Hemingway’s 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises, draws people from around the world.
Four men who took part in the 2026 bull runs were gored, including a 30-year-old Spanish man who had been pierced by a horn in the face.
Five of the 57 injured are foreign nationals: two Britons, an Australian, an American and a German who was gored in his left arm.
Although the runs are over, the festival’s closing ceremony will take place at midnight.
Sixteen people have been killed in the bull runs since records started in 1911. The last death was in 2009 when a bull gored a 27-year-old Spaniard in the neck, heart and lungs. AFP
