A Spanish man was gored to death at a fiesta after waving a pink umbrella at a charging half-tonne bull.

The 50-year-old father of one taunted the animal as it came rampaging out of a pen but the prank backfired horribly when the bull charged straight at him, trampled him to the floor and gored him with its horns.

The Bous al Carrer ("Bulls in the Street") festival, similar to the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, took place in the small town of Rafelbunyol, 16 miles north of Valencia on the east coast of Spain, on Saturday evening.

The town's narrow streets are sealed off on weekends between July and October as volunteers are chased by a bull, cheered on from overlooking windows and balconies.

Bous al Carrer events have become increasingly popular in towns and villages in the Valencia region in recent years, with 486 people injured last year.

A video posted on the ABC newspaper website [WARNING: graphic content] showed the man standing in the sand-covered street holding a pink umbrella in the air as the bull was released from the pen. An onlooker shouted "Olé" as the animal began to charge, and then it gored the man, piercing his chest and armpit.

An eyewitness told the local newspaper Las Provincias: "Everything happened very quickly. The animal turned and went for him. The man sidestepped once but then he couldn't get away. He fell to the floor and was charged."

A fellow bull runner tried to distract the animal by waving his hands in the air, but could do nothing to prevent the man's death. The victim was certified dead on arrival at hospital, the emergency services in Valencia said.

A second bull run, scheduled for later on Saturday night, was cancelled.