4 injured, no gorings in last Pamplona bull run

Published 5:55 am Tuesday, July 14, 2009

PAMPLONA, Spain — The final chapter in this year’s running of the bulls in Spain left four people injured with fractured bones and a head blow today, but no one was gored.

One of the six bulls set free in the last of eight runs through Pamplona’s cobblestone streets covered the half-mile route in an extremely fast time — 1 minute, 49 seconds — and at one point barreled into one runner and flipped him into the air.

For most of the run, the rest of the bulls and six accompanying steers stayed in a pack, which makes for a safer sprint.

Those injured were a 50-year-old Scottish man with a blow to the head, a 35-year-old Texan with a fractured ankle, a 33-year-old Frenchman with a sprained knee and an 18-year-old Spaniard, also with a fractured ankle, the San Fermin festival Web site said.

This year’s San Fermin festival saw the first goring death in nearly 15 years. The victim was a 27-year-old Spaniard who was gashed in the neck in Friday’s run.

Two other people gored Sunday remain in intensive care.