At least 10 people have been fatally gored during bull runs across Spain this summer, including four over the past weekend, in what is shaping up to be an especially deadly fiesta season across the country.
Spain’s best-known running of the bulls is held each year in Pamplona, but similar events are held throughout the summer across many municipalities as part of their annual fiestas. This year, as half-tonne bulls race through the streets of cities and towns across the country, some startling images have emerged showing bulls attacking runners and spectators.
On Monday the village of Traspinedo, north of Madrid, was in mourning after a 33-year-old local councillor was gored to death at a bull run in the nearby town of Peñafiel. José Alberto Peñas López was closely following a bull as it dashed through the final stages of the run when suddenly the animal turned back and charged repeatedly at him.
The socialist politician was one of four people across Spain to be killed during bull runs in the past three days. In Lerín, a small village north of Pamplona, an 18-year-old died after being gored in the abdomen, while a 53-year-old spectator was gored six times in Blanca, near Murcia. A 32-year-old also died on Friday after being gored in the chest in the Valencian town of Museros.
All of the deaths occurred during bull runs, not the bullfights that Lorca specialises in covering. But speculating on the cause of the high number of deaths this year, Lorca pointed to the reduced number of bullfights in arenas.