The packed grandstands in Taffala, near Pamplona, became a frenzy of screaming and scrambling, as a bull jumped the security wall and rampaged through the crowd. People ran for safety, but at one point the bull ran straight into the backs of several attendees, as the embedded video shows.
[Warning: The video contains graphic violent material some viewers may find offensive and difficult to watch]
More than 40 people were injured, and they were mainly treated for cuts and bruises, BBC reports. Nine were sent to a nearby hospital in Pamplona.
The 500-kilogram (1,100-pound) beast was eventually controlled by bull handlers after several minutes and later killed. It is unknown how the animal was killed, but the video shows handler holding what appears to be shotguns.
AP reports the bull had already attempted to jump into the stands twice. After damaging a horn, he was about to be returned to the corral and replaced with another bull when he tried a third time and succeeded.
Tafalla mayor Cristina Sota said in the main regional newspaper, Diario de Navarra, “What could have been a tragedy ended up as a big fright.”
Last month, La Monumental de Barcelona, the only bullring that operates in Catalonia, decided to ban bullfighting. The ban will take effect in 2012. But don’t expect Spain to join the anti-bullfighting trend: as the Week reports, “Madrid’s conservative regional government has gone in the opposite direction [as Catalonia], recently declaring bullfighting a ‘bien de interés cultural,’ putting it on the same footing as historical landmarks.”
