The essentials Three people died in Spain, including a French tourist, after being gored by cops during the release.
Three people have died in Spain in the last 24 hours, including a French tourist, after being impaled during the release of bulls in the Valencia region (south-east), emergency services told us on Wednesday July 20.
Two of the three victims, aged 50 and 56, died after being brutally shot by cops on Tuesday in a Valencia suburb, where bull releases are organized every year as part of celebrations called Bous al carrer. The third, a French tourist in his 60s, was hospitalized in serious condition on July 8 after being impaled in a village near Alicante. He died on Monday, according to a spokesman for the emergency services.
The release of bulls, a tradition in Spain especially in summer when many villages celebrate their patron saint, regularly claims victims in the country, despite the implementation of protocols designed to prevent these types of accidents. The most famous running of the bulls takes place each year as part of San Fermin in Pamplona (North), where hundreds of runners try to get as close as possible to six fighting bulls during an 850-meter race on the city’s cobblestone streets.*
This year, a total of five people were impaled during the celebrations, which ended on July 14, but no one was seriously injured. However, at least 16 runners have died there since data collection began in 1911.