Two injured in fifth Pamplona bull run

Daredevils crashed into each other in a scramble to escape six half-tonne bulls thundering through Pamplona in Spain on Wednesday on a bull run that sent two people to hospital.

The fighting bulls from the Fuente Ymbro ranch charged in a pack over most of the 850-metre (2,800-foot) course from a holding pen to Pamplona's bull ring in three minutes and 12 seconds.

A 56-year-old man from New Orleans suffered an injury to his left hand and a 32-year-old Spaniard bruised his face.

Both were taken to hospital for treatment and discharged after the run, which was the fifth so far in the San Fermin festival, regional health authorities said.

Runners, many wearing white clothes with red neck scarves, collided into each other or pushed one another out of the way in panic as the galloping animals neared.

"I think the other runners were almost more dangerous than the bulls, people shove and grab onto you. I almost fell at one point," said Andrew Cooper, 23, a student from Boston who took part in the run with two friends.

"It was an awesome experience, really intense. I am glad I came," he added.

One bull knocked a runner to the ground with its head. The man lifted his legs in the air to get them out of the way as the animal galloped past and only narrowly avoided being trampled.

The last bull to enter the bull ring, called "Infundio", seemed weakened and fell repeatedly.

Four men have been gored by bulls at this year's festival, which wraps up on July 14.

A 73-year-old retired architect from Pamplona was gored in his left leg on Saturday during the first bull run of the festival and underwent surgery. He remains in hospital.

A giant bull skewered two Britons and an American, none seriously, with its horns during Monday's run after it broke free from the pack and charged a crowd of runners cowering by the barriers.

The two British men, aged 20 and 29, were gored in their legs and remain in hospital.

Three years ago, a bull gored a 27-year-old Spaniard to death, piercing his neck, heart and lungs with its horns in front of hordes of tourists.

Half of the 20,500 people who took part in the festival's eight daily bull runs last year were doing so for the first time, according to Pamplona city hall.

Pamplona officials expect about half a million people to flock to the city of 200,000 for the July 6-14 festival, which dates back to medieval times.

It was made famous worldwide by Ernest Hemingway's 1926 novel "The Sun Also Rises" about a group of American and British expatriates who travel from Paris to Pamplona to watch the running of the bulls.

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