Six injured by stampeding animals as Running of the Bulls festival begins
Five reportedly suffered bruises while one had a leg injury as the festival in the northern town of Pamplona got underway.
Reports said six fighting bulls became detached from the herd shortly after ranchers released them from their pens.
Mayhem: Six people were rushed to hospital with injuries on the first day of the famous Running of the Bulls festival in Spain
Medics confirmed the casualty toll half an hour after runners risked their lives by putting themselves in front of six fighting bulls led by six steers as they sprinted along the half-mile run through the streets of Pamplona's old town.
The famous festival kicked off with the traditional San Fermin opening ceremony called the Chupinazo.
But two of the six fighting bulls became detached from the rest of the group shortly after ranchers let them out of their pens.
The animals, from the Fuente Ymbro farm in Spain's south-west province of Cadiz, included one called Zalagarda which is the heaviest of this year's bull runs and weighs in at 1,300lb.
During the festival, thousands of revelers dressed in the traditional white outfits with a red bandana around their necks ending up soaked in wine and sangria.
Images showed onlookers lining the streets and cheering as the bulls trampled past among the runners.
'As usual, the straight stretch of this street was crowded with young men and a few young women, many of whom were run over, fell, and trampled by bulls and steers,' El Pais reported.
The 8am run, which lasted two minutes 37 seconds and ended with the animals being guided into pens after reaching the town's bull ring, was the first of eight so-called encierros which form the highlight of the festival.
Last year, five runners were left injured on the seventh day of the festival.
A 37-year-old man from Beriain near Pamplona suffered the only gore injury, said to have been to his palate.
The other five casualties included a 54-year-old man from New York. All six runners who needed hospital treatment were males.
And in 2023, six people were also left injured in the first race, none of them seriously, medics said at the time.
Sixteen people have been killed during the bull runs at the annual festival, which finishes on July 14 and was made famous by the 1926 Ernest Hemingway novel The Sun Also Rises, since records began in 1910.
Beefy parade: Six bulls are released at 8am every day to run from their corral to the bullring through the narrow streets of the old town while runners ahead of them try to stay close to the bulls without falling over or being gored
The most recent death was in 2009 when 27-year-old Daniel Jimeno, from Madrid, was gored in the neck by a bull called Capuchino.
Several foreigners, from Australians to Americans through to Britons and Irish, are normally among the injured.
Between 200 and 300 people are usually left injured each year at the festival during the bull runs.
The first of the eight encierros last year took place four hours after a San Fermin reveler collapsed and died.
Police rushed to the scene and tried to save the 40-year-old man but were unable to resuscitate him.
Animal rights activists campaign against the festival every year, saying it is cruel to animals who are goaded and then killed in front of baying crowds.
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