86-year-old among injured in Pamplona bull run

An 86-year-old British man was among ten people taken to hospital following the last run of this year’s famous San Fermín festival.

The pensioner from the West Midlands town of Halesowen was hurt in the bullring at the end of the half-mile course.

The Brit, by far the oldest of those injured, suffered wounds to his right hand, left eyebrow and left elbow.

Health chiefs said this morning they couldn’t say how his health situation would evolve after he was taken to hospital.

The unnamed man became the second Brit injured during the morning bull runs at this year’s festival in the northern Spanish city of Pamplona.

A British tourist was one of 11 people hurt in Saturday’s run. William Mitchinson, 24, suffered an ankle injury after being knocked to the ground by one of the bulls he tried to outpace.

Speaking after his first-ever participation in this year’s fifth bull run, William told local press as he hobbled out of Navarra University Hospital after treatment: “I ran until the bull trampled me. I’d seen the festival on social media and it looked like good fun. It’s my first visit to Pamplona. I might come back another year, but only for the party.”

Two people suffered gore injuries on today’s run. One of the runners was horned in the chest near the end of the course.

Earlier by the town hall one of the six fighting bulls led by six steers broke away from the pack and charged a group of four men. One appeared to smash his head on the ground as he was swept off his feet.

It was not immediately clear this morning if he was among the ten people taken to hospital, although health chiefs confirmed a man had suffered a gore injury to his thigh in the area where the violent knockdown occurred.

Today’s run, which lasted two minutes and 25 seconds, was the eighth consecutive morning revellers had taken to the streets for the traditional ‘encierros’ which are the highlight of the famous festival.

The first took place last Tuesday - hours after a man attending the event collapsed and died in a bar.

Initially, Red Cross officials said moments after today’s 8am run ended that four people, two of them with gore injuries, would be taken to hospital. They then mistakenly said a third had been gored before the final injury tally including the 86-year-old Brit was confirmed.

The San Fermin festival kicked off at midday last Monday with its traditional opening ceremony called the Chupinazo, featuring thousands of revellers dressed in the must-wear white outfits with a red bandana around their necks ending up soaked in wine and sangria.

It will be formally brought to an end at midnight with a traditional event known as ‘Pobre de mi’, Spanish for ‘Poor Me’ which involves thousand of participants gathering in the town hall square with lit candles to mark the end of the nine-day celebration.

Sixteen people have been killed during the bull runs at the annual festival, which always finishes on July 14 and was made famous by the 1926 Ernest Hemingway novel ‘The Sun Also Rises’, since records began in 1910.

The most recent death was in 2009 when 27-year-old Daniel Jimeno, from Madrid, was gored in the neck by a bull called Capuchino.

Several foreigners, from Australians to Americans through to Brits and Irish, are normally among the injured.

The first of the eight bull runs in 2024, known locally as encierros, took place four hours after a San Fermin reveller collapsed and died. Police rushed to the scene and tried to save the 40-year-old man but were unable to resuscitate him.

In 2023 a 60-year-old man from Cardiff in Wales was among those injured.