Two people gored on second day of Pamplona bull-run festival (clone 36309930)

Two US tourists were among four people gored on the first day of the San Fermin Festival, better known as the running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain.

One of the men, aged 29, ended up in hospital with a gash to his scrotum after being impaled on the horn of a raging bull, officials said.

A witness said the bull hooked the man with a horn between his legs on the Santo Domingo slope, known by local runners as the "suicide slope" at the start of the race when the bulls are the freshest.

But it was a local man who was injured most badly, gored and dragged along by a bull in the long final stretch of cobblestone streets befiore the bulls and runners charge into the bull ring, The Daily Beast reported.

A medical report said the man's injuries included three gashes to the upper thigh and listed his condition as serious.

The other American had "less serious injures", officials said, which included a gash to his chest muscles which "did not enter the thoracic cavity".

Two men were gored on Saturday on the second day of the week-long festival.

One runner was gored in the buttocks and the other in the arm.

The four-minute run featured six bulls from the Jose Escolar ranch.

The daily bull run, which started in the 14th century, is about 800 metres long, starts at 8am local time and usually lasts between three and five minutes.

There are eight runs in total during the festival.

Newsbreak - July 9