Pictured: The bloody moment a matador is gored by a bull



This is the moment matador Jose Tomas was gored during a bullfight.

The crowd looked on in horror as it charged the 32-year-old bullfighter and tossed him in the air.

Yet Tomas managed to recover and kill the bull, triumphantly showing off the ear in traditional fashion.

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Jose Tomas is gored during a bullfight in Spain yesterday

The bull gores the matador as he lays on the ground

The incident happened at the 'El Coso de los Califas' Bullring in Cordoba .

Tomas left the ring in 2002, at the peak of his career, without saying why, and returned to the bullring a year ago.

He told the newspaper El Pais in May last year that he was coming back because “living without bullfighting is not living”.

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Jose Tomas lies on the arena, unable to escape the bull's charge

The bull appears to be playing with his enemy as it tosses him in the air

Success in bullfighting is a question of having a unique style, a personal flair that breaks the mould that usually makes one matador virtually indistinguishable from the next, and in this Tomas excels, said veteran critic Juan Belmonte of Canal Sur television in Seville .

Tomas gets up very close to the bull - both before luring it into a charge and as it rumbles by - and looks relaxed and natural in his bravado, showing utter disregard for all the danger, Belmonte said.

“You realize that the guy out there gives the impression that he does not care if he dies right then,” Belmonte said.

Spattered with blood, the matador stands and recovers himself after being tackled by the bull

A quick clean-up and Jose Tomas celebrates his triumph, proudly displaying the bull's two ears



