Runner gored in the face and 12 others injured at San Fermín bull run in Pamplona
A runner was gored in the face and at least 12 other people were injured during a morning bull run at the San Fermín festival in Pamplona, northern Spain, according to Sky News, which cited regional emergency services. The encierro, in which six fighting bulls charge through the old town toward the bullring, is the festival's defining and most dangerous event.
The San Fermín bull runs are one of Europe's most-watched high-risk public spectacles, and each injury feeds a long-running debate over whether the tradition should endure. For the many international visitors who travel to Pamplona each July — including Belgians among the crowds — the incident is a reminder that the encierro carries real and recurring danger, not a staged one.
San Fermín is an annual festival held from 6 to 14 July in Pamplona, capital of the Navarre region in northern Spain. Its centrepiece is the encierro, a daily bull run in which six Spanish fighting bulls and accompanying steers are driven about 875 metres through the old town's streets to the bullring, with participants running ahead of them. Named after Saint Fermín, the festival gained global fame through Ernest Hemingway's writing and now attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors. The runs regularly produce injuries from gorings, falls and crushes, and are covered live by Spanish broadcasters and international agencies.
Background
San Fermín's bull run dates back centuries and became internationally famous after Ernest Hemingway featured it in his 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises. Injuries occur almost every year, and widely documented festival records list around 16 deaths since the early twentieth century, the most recent being that of Spanish runner Daniel Jimeno Romero in 2009. The event has become a flashpoint between defenders of Spanish cultural tradition and animal-welfare campaigners who want it abolished.
What to do
Visitors considering running should note that participation carries genuine risk of goring and crush injuries, is governed by Pamplona's course rules, and requires sobriety and physical readiness; travel and health insurance conditions may not cover voluntary high-risk activity.
Impact
Regional — Belgian travellers are among the international visitors who attend San Fermín each summer; those planning to run are subject to the same risks and to Pamplona's participation rules and medical screening at the course.
Opposing perspectives
- Pamplona authorities and festival defenders
Pamplona's city authorities and many pamploneses defend the encierro as a centuries-old cultural inheritance and a voluntary act by adult participants who accept the risk. They point to the medical teams, barriers and rules governing the run as evidence the danger is managed, and reject calls to end a tradition central to the city's identity.
Sources & evidence
- View sourceSky NewsPrimary· news.sky.comRetrieved 4 August 2026
- View sourceSan Fermín festival — historical and event background· sanfermin.comRetrieved 4 August 2026
