One runner was gored in the face and many more were fortunate to not be seriously injured during a chaotic bull run at Spain’s San Fermin festival on Saturday.

The six bulls and accompanying steers charged through crowds of thrill-seekers who packed the narrow street course in Pamplona. 

The huge 600kg animals knocked bodies to the cobblestones, and stumbling runners caused several pileups during the two-and-a-half-minute run from the pen to the bull ring where bullfighters will kill the bulls later in the day.

One runner was pierced by a horn in the face, while 12 more people needed medical treatment for an assortment of knocks, according to the University of Navarra Hospital.

A black bull broke away from the pack early in the 875-meter (957-yard) run and plowed into a group of people, smacking one full in the side of the face with a horn. 

It was not clear if that was the moment of the goring.

Many runners appeared completely unaware when bulls were breathing down their necks and, instead of trying to gore them, just shoved them out of the way.

Saturday’s was the fifth morning run of the eight-day festival in northern Spain.

One runner was gored in the face and many more were fortunate to not be seriously injured during a chaotic bull run at Spain’s San Fermin festival on Saturday

The six bulls and accompanying steers charged through crowds of thrill-seekers who packed the narrow street course in Pamplona

The huge 600kg animals knocked bodies to the cobblestones, and stumbling runners caused several pileups during the two-and-a-half-minute run from the pen to the bull ring where bullfighters will kill the bulls later in the day

One runner was pierced by a horn in the face, while 12 more people needed medical treatment for an assortment of knocks, according to the University of Navarra Hospital

A black bull broke away from the pack early in the 875-meter (957-yard) run and plowed into a group of people, smacking one full in the side of the face with a horn

Audience at Mercaderes’ street before the fifth running of the bulls of of the San Fermin festival in Pamplona

This year’s festival comes 100 years since the publication of Ernest Hemingway’s novel ‘The Sun Also Rises,’ whose publication launched the San Fermin festival to international fame.

The last death at San Fermin’s bull runs occurred in 2009, but gorings and broken bones are common, partly due to the large number of novice bull runners and foreign tourists who join the experienced locals.

Thousands of people from around the world attend the week-long festival every year to take part in the famous encierros, in which the bulls are released at 8am to charge from their corral to the bullring along an 850-metre route through the city’s old town.

Brits typically make up around 4 per cent of the international participants. 

Runners attempt to stay as close to the animals as possible without falling or being gored.

Alongside the daily bull runs, it features parades, music, religious ceremonies and round-the-clock street festivities. 

On Friday dramatic images showed runners sprinting through the narrow streets as they are chased by six charging bulls during the fourth run.

Other photographs capture runners lying on the cobbles desperately trying to shield themselves as bulls thunder past, with one man curling into a ball and covering his face.

Participants run ahead of bulls through the Mercaderes curve during the fifth running of the bulls of the San Fermin festival in Pamplona, northern Spain, on July 11, 2026

Red Cross volunteers tend to the injured during the fifth bull run of the 2026 San FermÃn festival, on 11 July 2026, in Pamplona

A runner is attended by medical staff following the Running of the Bulls

Participants wearing traditional white outfits and red scarves take part in the running with the bulls

A medical team treats an injured reveler after the fifth running of the bulls 

Pictured: People can be seen lying on the floor, using their hands to shield themselves as the bulls trample them

A ‘mozo’ or runner falls while he was chased by the bulls of Jose Escolar Gil ranch

A ‘mozo’ or a runner jumps over others while being chased by a bull

Local police take positions before the fifth running of the bulls during the San Fermin festival in Pamplona

Another image shows a runner punching the air as he races just metres ahead of the animals’ horns, while another clings to a friend’s shoulder as a bull bears down behind him.

A further photograph shows an injured runner being carried away on a stretcher as fellow participants look on.

At least three people were rushed to hospital on the first proper day of the festival on Tuesday.

Medics confirmed the initial casualty toll 20 minutes after runners risked their lives putting themselves in front of six fighting bulls led by six steers as they sprinted along the half-mile run through the streets of Pamplona’s old town.

The three people taken to hospital, all men, were a 61-year-old American and two Spaniards aged 20 and 34.

The American suffered a head injury but hospital chiefs said this morning it was not serious.

The 20-year-old from Segovia suffered a leg injury and the 34-year-old, from the Basque province of Biscay, an ankle injury.

A fourth person hurt in the bull ring was treated at the scene, with later reports saying a fifth had received medical attention but was not expected to require hospital treatment. There were no gore injuries.