Video has emerged showing a bull being set on fire at a festival in a Spanish town.

The bull, called Mancheguito, suffered an “excruciating 13 minutes of torture”, according to the animal rights campaigners who secretly shot the footage.

Pacma, a political party who support animal rights, recorded the video at a Toro Jubilo festival in the town of Medinaceli, in the north of the country.

In the video, the bull is chased and surrounded by men, who cover it in mud. They then forcibly tie a wooden frame to the animal’s head and set either side of it on fire, giving the impression that the bull has flaming horns.

The bull was then released but was in clear discomfort as it swung its head around, trying to escape the flames and avoid the bonfires which are scattered around the floor of the arena.

Parts of the fire fell from the torch and landed on the bull’s head.

"The animal would probably have been blinded because of the fire burning its cornea as well as being injured because of its continuous head shaking as it tried to get the wood loose,” a Pacma statement said.

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Mancheguito would have later been killed in a slaughter house, rather than in public, providing a loophole to allow the ritual to take place, The Local reported. Killing bulls in public is illegal in the Castilla y Leon region.

The tradition is not without controversy and organisers limited places given to spectators and banned the media from attending.

"Organisers decided to only allow access to people with invitations so even journalists were banned," said Pacma.