Two men aged 40 and 80 have died this week after being gored during festive bull-runs in Spain, officials said on Friday.
The 80-year-old died on Wednesday of his injuries two days after he was gored in the stomach in the town of Ampolla de Mar in Catalonia, northeastern Spain.
The town's mayor, Francesc Arasa, said the victim was a regular at bull-runs and was fit despite his age.
The man was gored by one of three heifers that were set loose as a prelude to the main bull run.
He was behind a barrier but failed to get out of the way when a heifer poked its horns through the bars and "gored him two or three times in the stomach", Arasa said.
The man suffered major blood loss which damaged his liver and kidneys and he died two days later. The fiesta was halted after the incident.
"It is the first time someone has been killed in this village in the bull-runs," Arasa said.
In a similar incident in the western town of Coria, a 40-year old man died of a heart attack in hospital after being gored in the chest and belly on Wednesday, a spokesman for the Extremadura regional authorities told AFP.
A video published on the internet showed the huge black bull lifting the man off the ground as it thrust its horns through the bars meant to protect participants in the town's bullring.
The bull was slaughtered on Thursday, officials said.
On Thursday night, a man aged 23 was hurt in another bull-run in Coria but his life was not in danger.
The events were held to mark the popular folk festival of Saint John, in which revellers across Spain run alongside huge fighting bulls and in some places jump through bonfires.
"Unfortunately in a festival like this, these things happen from time to time," Coria's mayor Jose Manuel Garcia told reporters.
"It is a very dangerous festival, with bulls running through the streets and a high risk of accidents."
Spain's biggest and most popular bull-running festival runs from July 6 to 14 in Pamplona, northern Spain.
That San Fermin fiesta, made famous by the US writer Ernest Hemingway, draws hundreds of thousands of revellers from numerous countries.
Fifteen people have died in San Fermin bull-runs since 1911.
Two men aged 40 and 80 have died this week after being gored during festive bull-runs in Spain, officials said on Friday.
The 80-year-old died on Wednesday of his injuries two days after he was gored in the stomach in the town of Ampolla de Mar in Catalonia, northeastern Spain.
The town’s mayor, Francesc Arasa, said the victim was a regular at bull-runs and was fit despite his age.
The man was gored by one of three heifers that were set loose as a prelude to the main bull run.
He was behind a barrier but failed to get out of the way when a heifer poked its horns through the bars and “gored him two or three times in the stomach”, Arasa said.
The man suffered major blood loss which damaged his liver and kidneys and he died two days later. The fiesta was halted after the incident.
“It is the first time someone has been killed in this village in the bull-runs,” Arasa said.
In a similar incident in the western town of Coria, a 40-year old man died of a heart attack in hospital after being gored in the chest and belly on Wednesday, a spokesman for the Extremadura regional authorities told AFP.
A video published on the internet showed the huge black bull lifting the man off the ground as it thrust its horns through the bars meant to protect participants in the town’s bullring.
The bull was slaughtered on Thursday, officials said.
On Thursday night, a man aged 23 was hurt in another bull-run in Coria but his life was not in danger.
The events were held to mark the popular folk festival of Saint John, in which revellers across Spain run alongside huge fighting bulls and in some places jump through bonfires.
“Unfortunately in a festival like this, these things happen from time to time,” Coria’s mayor Jose Manuel Garcia told reporters.
“It is a very dangerous festival, with bulls running through the streets and a high risk of accidents.”
Spain’s biggest and most popular bull-running festival runs from July 6 to 14 in Pamplona, northern Spain.
That San Fermin fiesta, made famous by the US writer Ernest Hemingway, draws hundreds of thousands of revellers from numerous countries.
Fifteen people have died in San Fermin bull-runs since 1911.
