Two Americans and a Briton have been gored and eight others injured on the first day of the San Fermín festival in Pamplona, where bulls chase runners in red scarves through the streets.



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Six half-ton fighting bulls were let loose in the narrow streets of the northern Spanish city for the festival’s first run, which was described as quick and dangerous. Eleven people in total were injured in the two minutes and 23 seconds it took for the bulls to barrel down the 850-metre route from the holding pen to the city bullring.

A 38-year-old American was gored in the armpit, and a 30-year-old Brit was left slightly injured after being gored in the groin. A 27-year-old from California was treated for a superficial wound on his lower back after being grazed by a bull’s horns. None of the injuries were considered to be life-threatening.

Eight other men, including three Americans, were treated for bruises and scrapes.

Tuesday’s run included six animals from the Jandilla ranch in the rural western region of Extremadura, known for the ferocity of its bulls. The Spanish newspaper El País heralded a “particularly feisty bull” named Fastuoso, or Magnificent, who took an early lead in the run, knocking people aside as he charged down the tightly packed street. As he rounded a curve, Fastuoso hurled a runner against the wall, breaking a water pipe in the process.

The nine-day festival, which traces its roots back to the 13th century, was made famous by Ernest Hemingway’s 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises. Each year thousands of tourists, mostly from the US, Australia and Britain, flock to the festival to tear through the streets dressed in red and white.

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The festival is a target for animal rights activists, who point out that the bulls used in the eight days of runs are all killed in evening bullfights. On Saturday 100 or so protesters, many of them covered in fake blood, gathered outside Pamplona’s bullring to protest at what they call a week of fear and death for bulls. “Pamplona’s streets are stained with bulls’ blood,” read their signs.

Fifteen people have been killed in the festival since records began in the early 1900s. Dozens are injured each year, many of them during the panicked chaos of the bull runs.