Pamplona's Running of the Bulls 2000

July 8 -- Twenty-one people were injured — two critically — during the second day of the running of the bulls in the narrow streets of Pamplona, Spain.

A 40-year-old American man from Denver was gored in thebuttocks and required surgery, and a 23-year-old Canadian whowas trampled suffered a head injury, requiring a trip to thehospital, emergency workers said. No names were available.

Two others were taken to hospital for lesser injuries, andthe rest were treated on the spot.

Started Friday

The annual running of the bulls got under way Friday with several minor injuries — but no gorings. The run, part of the Spanish city’s annual eight-day orgy of wine and bravado that is the San Fermín Festival, attracts up to a half million visitors, many of them spending the night on the streets singing, dancing and drinking ahead of the morning run.

The animals set off each day on a half-mile stampede, from the corral where the bulls are kept to the outdoor arena where they will be killed by matadors later in the day.

Several thousand people took part in Friday’s run, mostly men wearing white pants and a red sash around their waist. This is in tribute to the first runners centuries ago: butchers in blood stained work clothes.

Two Spaniards were hospitalized on Friday, one with a bump on the head and the other with a hurt elbow, after falling during the harrowing early morning dash through the cobblestone streets of Pamplona’s old quarter. Twenty others were treated on the scene for bumps and scratches, but no one was gored in the first of eight runs.

And the bulls aren’t the only threat. Runners jostle and sometimes trample each other to stay ahead of three-quarters of a ton of fury.

Overcrowding has made the runs extremely dangerous. So many people showed up this year that police prevented some from running, keeping them behind wooden barriers set up to protect throngs of spectators.

A Half-Ton of Bull