Footage has been shared of the dramatic moment a bull knocked a man to the ground, charged at his head and dragged his body around the pen.
The incident occurred at the Sokamuturra festival in Puerto Viejo de Algorta, a town in Getxo, in the northern Spanish region of Basque Country.
During the festival, bulls are tethered to a pole in the middle of the square, as participants goad the animal into chasing them. In this incident, however, the bull got free and managed to hit the back of the man’s legs with its horns, causing him to flip and land on his neck.
You can watch it here:
As the man lands on the ground, the bull charges back at him, running into his head. As the animal snags the rope, the man’s lifeless body is dragged across the ground.
Amazingly, though the footage of the event looks alarming, the man only suffered bruises and a broken spirit.
A number of onlookers quickly come to the aid of the man, who manage to distract the bull as they take the victim away. It’s not clear whether he needed hospital treatment or not.
Earlier this month, a 26-year-old man bled to death after he was knocked down and gored by a young bull at another festival, the El Pinós fiestas, in Alicante.
The bull reportedly caused an eight-inch gash in the man’s calf. He was given emergency medical treatment on the scene and was rushed to hospital, though the man sadly died on the operating table after the wound affected an artery.
Town hall officials held a minute’s silence for the man the next morning, and the festival was cancelled the following day out of respect.
Spain’s famous Running of the Bulls festival in Pamplona saw numerous injuries this year, ranging from cuts and bruise to people being trampled, gored and knocked unconscious, according to Metro.
One runner who was hit by a bull said: ‘The impact was unlike anything I’ve ever felt. It was like being hit by a car or a truck. It was scary.’
Though bull fighting is seen as a Spanish tradition, dating back centuries, festivals these days are facing more and more scrutiny from locals and authorities due to the sheer volume of injuries to humans, as well as the bulls involved.
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Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist and sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. His work has also appeared in such places as The Guardian, PN Review and the bin.