Goring finish: 3 injured on last day of bull run

updated 7:30 p.m. ET July 14, 2007

MADRID, Spain - Six massive bulls hurtled down narrow cobblestone streets alongside thousands of thrill-seeking runners Saturday, injuring three people on the final day of Pamplona’s annual running of the bulls festival.

Ricardo Brufau Giner, 21, of Barcelona, was gored in the buttock and taken for surgery. Fernando Garayoa Platero, 52, of Pamplona, was recovering from a skull injury after being caught and lofted in the air. And an unidentified 30-year-old Spaniard was recovering from abdominal bruising after getting trampled, the government said.

Although relatively quick at less than three minutes, the run was complicated after two bulls separated from the front-running pack and galloped several yards behind. The two bulls weighed more than 1,100 pounds apiece.

On Thursday, Lawrence and Michael Lenahan, brothers from Westlake, Ohio, were gored simultaneously in an accident-filled run that also injured 11 others. It was the worst day for injuries in the nine-day San Fermin festival.

The festival in this northern town, renowned for its all-night wine- and sangria-fueled street parties, dates back to the late 16th century. It gained worldwide fame in Ernest Hemingway’s 1926 novel “The Sun Also Rises.”

Police arrested 125 people during this year’s reverie, compared to 60 last year, the government said. Forty-seven arrests were for theft, with the majority of pickpocketers coming from one country: Romania.

Since record-keeping began in 1924, 13 people have been killed during the runs, most recently in 1995.

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