The first running of the bulls of this year’s festival set off at about 8am in the northern Spanish city of Pamplona.
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One of the thousands of revelers at the annual Running of the Bulls in Spain snapped a quick pic with one of the wild beasts Thursday – the first day of the eight-day festival.
On each day of the festival six bulls are released at 8:00 a.m. (0600 GMT) to run from their corral through the narrow, cobbled streets of the old town over an 850-meter (yard) course.
The runs are notorious for inflicting injuries on participants and have claimed 15 lives since record began in 1924, while 10 people were gored past year.
Each day during the nine-day fiesta, runners try and test their luck and skills at getting close to the stampeding wild bulls.
The 33-year-old Japanese man was gored in the chest and a 24-year-old Spanish man in the arm, while 12 others suffered minor injuries, the local government said on its website.
Among others gored were a 58-year-old Spaniard and a 73-year-old South African were listed in a serious condition, and 26-year-old Indian, whose condition was described as less serious.
The run ended at the Monumental bullring, where the bulls will face matadors in a traditional fight Thursday afternoon.
More than 1,000 people took part in Friday’s run, which lasted almost six minutes.
The heavy rains that lasted until an hour before the run made the streets traitorously slippery and caused many falls from the moment the starting rocket was sacked. Dozens of people are injured each year in the runs, mostly in falls.
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Three Americans were among the seven people gored by bulls Friday during Spain’s San Fermin festival in Pamplona.
