Thirteen people were injured in Pamplona's first bull run of the year today after the animals ploughed into a crowd of spectators.
The Spanish Red Cross said the wounded were treated for head and rib injuries after falling or being trampled. None of the patients – five Spaniards and tourists from Britain, the US, Australia, New Zealand, Romania and South Korea – had been gored.
The worst off was a 37-year-old Spaniard with fractured ribs and a ruptured spleen, the Red Cross said.
In a separate incident, a 23-year-old Irish soldier, Aidan Holly, from Tarbert, in north Kerry, died yesterday after falling 30 metres from a wall encircling the town's old quarter.
Today marked the start of the annual week-long Fiesta de San Fermin, as the Pamplona bull run is known.
In the first of eight scheduled half-mile runs through the town's cobbled streets, the six half-tonne bulls became separated early in the route after running into a crowd of people. Some of the bulls fell and two ended up running on their own.
One of the animals became disoriented and tried to return to the starting point before herders waving sticks guided it to the bull ring where the course ends. Upon reaching the finish, one bull collapsed and lay inert on the ground for several minutes before coming round.
The whole run took a little more than four minutes, a bit slow by Pamplona's normal standards.
"There were a few tense moments, but I think everything went quite well," said Aritz Lopez, a 29-year-old runner from Bilbao.
Since records began in 1924, 14 runners have died. The last person killed in a goring was a 22-year-old American, Matthew Tassio, in 1995. In 2003, a 63-year-old Pamplona native, Fermin Etxeberri, died after a bull trampled on his head and put him in a coma for several months.