Human bloodshed marks festival finale
By CNN Travel staff • Updated 15th July 2013
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Five people were treated for injuries at Navarra Hospital on Sunday, after the final ritual running of the bulls at the Festival of San Fermin in Pamplona, Spain.
The most serious of Sunday's injuries was sustained by a 23-year-old Australian woman, who was gored in the chest.
According to an official report, the woman suffered fractured rubs and damage to her right lung.
Her condition was described as "grave" by the regional government, which hosts the festival.
Three men were gored on Friday, including an American who underwent emergency surgery to remove his spleen, and another American who suffered a "rectal perforation."
Thrill seekers race amid Miura's bulls during the last bull run of the San Fermin Festival in Pamplona, Spain, on Sunday.
ANDER GILLENEA/AFP/Getty Images
On Saturday, natives of Spain and Ireland were listed in "serious condition" after being trampled, apparently by people, during a pileup of some 200 runners and two bulls near the entrance to the festival's main bullring. At least 20 people sustained injuries in the pileup.
As part of the nine-day festival, which celebrates San Fermin, patron saint of Pamplona and the Navarra region, human thrill seekers run through the streets of Pamplona amid groups of six charging bulls.
The run takes place each day of the festival (excluding opening day) at 8 a.m. Many of the runners stay up all night, filling themselves with liquid courage before making the inebriated dash in the early light.
After a pair of rockets are set off, the bulls charge through crowds of runners for about 920 yards, the distance between the bull corral and bullring.
The run generally takes three or four minutes to complete.
This year's festival ended on Sunday with a reported 206 people sustaining injuries during the bull runs.
According to various reports, 13, 14 or 15 runners have been killed at the running of the bulls over the last century.
The most recent fatality was in 2009 when a 27-year-old man from Madrid died after being gored in the neck.
