At least two people have been gored and many injured during the first running of the bulls of this year’s San Fermin festival, medical officials in the northern Spanish city of Pamplona said.

Red Cross spokesman Jose Aldaba said one man was gored in the chest and another in the abdomen. Both of them were immediately taken to a nearby hospital.

More runners were believed to be bruised as two of the animals separated from the other four in the pack on their way to Pamplona’s bullring. They completed the 930-yard (850-metre) cobbled-street course in just under three minutes.

Friday’s bulls came from the Cebada Gago ranch, famed as fierce because they usually cause more injuries.

The nine-day San Fermin fiesta was popularized by Nobel Literature laureate Ernest Hemingway.