Four injured in Pamplona bullrun

Thousands of runners fled half-tonne bulls thundering through Pamplona’s streets yesterday in the first bull-run of Spain’s San Fermin fiesta, which resulted in four injuries.

Six huge fighting bulls and six steers charged through the narrow, winding streets of the northern Spanish town, clearing a path through a sea of runners mostly dressed in white, with red handkerchiefs.

Some dared to run just an arm’s length before the bulls, glancing nervously behind at the running beasts’ dangerous curved horns, on the first run of the alcohol-laced festival, which runs to July 14. Others chased behind the pack, occasionally touching the bulls’ sides on the inaugural run, watched by millions on television.

Many cowered on the sidelines or peered down from balconies.

Bulls and at least 2,000 runners stampeded through an 848.6-metre course from a holding pen to the city’s bull ring in two minutes, 30 seconds, a spokesman for the festival organisers said.

The run was “fast and clean”, the spokesman said.

Four runners – three Spaniards and a Panamanian – suffered light injuries and were taken to hospital, he said.