Attacked by fighting bull: One dead and several injured - including a child (4)

Pantoja (Spain) - At one of the most traditional bull runs in Spain , a fighting bull killed a spectator and injured four other people, some of them seriously.

The accident occurred at the town festival in Pantoja, around 50 kilometers south of Madrid, when a bull broke through the barriers of the running track and took several spectators by the horns, as reported by the media and the emergency services of the Castilla-La Mancha region.

An 80-year-old man died from his injuries. A four-year-old girl was among the injured, but her life was not in danger, it was reported.

Police officers had shot the animal. The authorities said they had launched an investigation.

Accidents, including fatal ones, are not uncommon at the summer bull runs, which have been part of the popular festivals in Spain for many centuries.

However, it is usually only the so-called runners who are affected, i.e. mainly the young men who drive the bulls through the cordoned-off, often very narrow streets of the old towns into the arena in the mornings for the so-called corridas.

The most famous bull run takes place every year at the beginning of July at the Sanfermín festival in Pamplona in the north of the country. During these tests of courage, the runners try to run as close as possible to or in front of the bulls, which often weigh up to 600 kilograms, and touch them without being caught.

Animal rights activists often describe the traditional spectacle as animal torture.

Although protests increase from year to year, these events are not really seriously challenged in most regions of Spain. Often the hustle and bustle is also good business for the cities. In Pamplona, for example, the wild spectacle with numerous side events attracts more than a million onlookers to the city every year.