PAMPLONA, Spain — For a bull, this one was on the smallish side, at just over a ton. And its name, Capuchino, sounded harmless enough, like coffee with frothy milk.
But of the things that can go wrong when hordes of humans sprint with thundering beasts at Spain’s most storied fiesta, the light brown bull did one of the most dangerous on Friday, straying from the pack, spooking and charging at anything that moved.
The rogue bull gored a young Spaniard in the neck, the first fatality in nearly 15 years at Pamplona’s running of the bulls. The victim was killed almost instantly as he scurried for cover under a wooden barrier, sliding under it feet-first.
Had he dived headfirst, the experienced bull runner and son of a Pamplona native would probably still be alive.
At least nine people were injured in the fourth of eight planned runs, illustrating the festival’s extraordinary drawing power and global lure: two were Americans in their 60s, one of whom suffered a blow to the chest, one a Londoner aged 20, and another a young man from Argentina.
The party went on despite the death, the 15th since record keeping began in 1924. The running of the bulls — made famous by Ernest Hemingway’s novel “The Sun Also Rises” — has never been suspended just because someone has died in the mad, half mile dash from a holding pen to the city’s bull ring.
There, the same six bulls that run in the cool of the morning over cobblestone streets face off against matadors and the prospect of almost certain death in the afternoon. Ironically, on Friday, Capuchino was scheduled to go first.
At one point a bull picked one man up with its horns and flipped him into the air as if he were a toy, then kept going after him as he lay curled up on the ground, covering his face.
A minute of silence was to be observed in memory of the late Spaniard, identified as Daniel Jimeno Romero, 27, from Alcala de Henares, a town outside Madrid. On the social networking site Netlog, where condolences were being posted Friday, he described himself as a glassmaker who loves soccer and snowboarding.
The last fatal goring at the running of the bulls was that of 22-year-old American Matthew Tassio in 1995. Then, the problem was not a stray bull but a fatal mistake by Tassio: after falling, rather than stay on the ground and wait for the pack to pass over, he stood up and faced the animals. A bull’s horn hit him right in the chest.
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.
Fatalities are relatively rare and when one occurs, it serves as a reminder that running with fighting bulls is a life-risking exercise.
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