travelling-blogger

Another year over: Revellers gather behind the Town Hall and hold candles after the singing of the 'Pobre de Mi' song

For a week every July, hundreds of people dressed in white with red scarves join the daily 'encierros', when bulls chase them through the town's narrow streets into the bullring in a festival that has grown into a global tourist attraction.

But the annual festival was not without its casualties this year: On the final day, as hundreds of people dashed alongside the six half-ton beasts and their accompanying steer through the streets in the eighth run, one bull spread panic in a hair raising final, goring two Australians and a Spaniard. Five Spaniards were also hospitalised for other injuries.

The morning runs are the highlight of the nine-day street-partying festival immortalized in Ernest Hemingway's 1926 novel 'The Sun Also Rises', with hundreds of people testing their speed and bravery by racing the bulls along a 930-yard (850-metre) course from a holding pen to the city's bull ring.

The runs usually last between three to five minutes, and the bulls then appear in an evening bullfight, when they are killed.

Dozens of people are injured each year in the 'encierros' as the runs are called in Spanish, most of them in falls. Several men have already been gored this year but Monday's run, the eighth and last, was particularly brutal.

Other participants tried to distract a particularly aggressive bull - one of a pack of six - and eventually herded it into the ring.

Nine men, one of them a 23-year-old Briton, were still in hospital on Monday recovering from injuries from the past week, according to the Navarra region's hospital authorities.

In the runs, hundreds of people test their speed and bravery by racing the bulls along a 850-metre course from a holding pen to the city's bull ring

Giant figures dance during the farewell ceremony of the Comparsa de Gigantes y Cabezudos (Troupe of Giants and Bigheads)

The farewell dance ceremony on the last day of the San Fermin festival attracts large crowds

One of the Giants and Big Heads takes a tumble during the farewell ceremony

As night falls, revellers raise red scarves and candles as they sing 'Pobre de Mi'

Passion: A sea of candles and red neckerchiefs as the people sing in the town square

Another of the injured was Bill Hillmann, an American who co-wrote a book called 'Fiesta: How To Survive The Bulls of Pamplona'. He was gored in the thigh after he tripped and fell.

Many participants drink and dance all night before taking part in the 8 a.m. (0600 GMT) event, though local authorities have tried to clamp down on reckless behaviour in recent years.

Spanish media said over the weekend that Pamplona police were looking for a young man who was photographed trying to get a dangerous 'selfie' photo of himself on his phone as he ran inches in front of the bulls. He could be fined up to 3,000 euros ($4,100) if they find he endangered other runners.

A 27-year-old man from Madrid was the last person to be killed during a Pamplona bull run after being gored in the neck in 2009. Fifteen people have died from gorings since record-keeping began in 1924.

'Olivito', a bull from the Miura ranch, gores a 'mozo' or runner during the eighth bull run yesterday

Three runners were gored by Miura bulls in the dangerous eighth running of the bulls on Monday

A Cabezudo wipes his eye during the farewell ceremony of the Comparsa de Gigantes y Cabezudos (Troupe of Giants and Bigheads)