“I have been here for the set-up, and now that it has started it is
amazing. Not sure I will run because it is way too crowded,” she said.
The first of eight runs in which daredevils dash through the streets with six
powerful fighting bulls begins on Saturday.
The bulls thunder along with six bell-tinkling steers meant to keep the bulls
running in a pack, making the run allegedly safer. An isolated bull can get
spooked and disoriented, becoming much more likely to charge at people.
Since record keeping began in 1924, 15 people have been killed by bulls in the
early morning festival runs. The most recent such tragedy came in 2009 when
a young Spaniard was gored in the neck as he tried to escape a bull by
sliding feet-first under a fence separating the course from the crowd
watching the run. It was the first death at San Fermin in nearly 15 years.
The party allegedly honouring San Fermin, the patron saint of Pamplona, was
immortalised in Ernest Hemingway’s novel “The Sun Also Rises.”
Source: AP