Bull Gores Participant in Annual Pamplona Event

The running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain is an annual event, and I can't help but root for the bulls. The bulls run through the streets on the way to the bullfighting ring where they face matadors and their own demise. However, those streets are filled with thrill seekers who have thoughts of Hemmingway dancing in their heads.

Injuries to spectators and participants is a regular occurrence. Death is not.

Today was not one of those days.

Today, one of the bulls gored a man to death. It was the first since 2003 when a man was trampled and died after a month in a coma.

The San Fermin festival Web site said the unidentified man was gored in the neck and lung during a run in which a rogue bull named Cappuccino separated from the pack, which is among the worst things that can happen at Spain's most popular fiesta.

Isolated bulls are more likely to get disoriented and start charging at people.

Photographs showed the man lying on a stretcher moments after the goring, his face and neck stained with blood and his eyes only half-open. An emergency medical worker is leaning over him, applying what appears to be gauze to his neck wound.

Three other people were gored, and six people suffered bumps, bruises and other lesser injuries, said Fernando Boneta, director of Virgen del Camino Hospital. The festival ends Tuesday, and there was no indication that the remaining bull runs would be canceled because of the death.

The last fatal goring at the running of the bulls claimed the life of 22-year-old American Matthew Tassio in 1995. In 2003, a 63-year-old Spanish man, Fermin Etxeberri, was trampled in the head by a bull and died after spending months in a coma.