Woman spectator gored to death in Spanish bull run

A running bull gored and killed a woman spectator who poked her head through the barrier during a town bull run in central Spain on Thursday, authorities said.

Madrid: A running bull gored and killed a
woman spectator who poked her head through the barrier during
a town bull run in central Spain on Thursday, authorities said.

"After poking her head through the bars she received a
fatal blow to the head from a bull at the back of the herd,"
said a statement by the town hall of Arganda del Rey near
Madrid.

The beast`s horn pierced the neck of 48-year-old Maria
del Carmen Lopez del Burgo and she died shortly afterwards, an
emergency worker at the scene told RNE public radio.

The town hall said it would hold a minute`s silence
for the victim today and expressed its condolences to her
family and loved ones. But it said the town festival would not
be suspended.

Only on Monday, a bull gored a 41-year-old bricklayer
and killed him, lancing the man`s lung and a major artery
during a bull run in the central Spanish town of Villaseca de
la Sagra.

Towns across Spain hold festivals in which crowds of
people show run ahead a pack of bulls, which thunder through
the streets towards the bull ring for a fight.

In the most famous bull run in Pamplona in July, 37
people including 11 foreigners were injured this year.

Since 2000 at least 36 people have been gored to death
in bull runs in Spain, according to the media.

Professional bullfighters also face the risk of
serious injury or death.

A half-tonne bull jabbed one of its horns into the
throat and out of the mouth of top Spanish matador Julio
Aparicio on May 21 in Madrid`s 25,000-seat Las Ventas arena.

Photos of the spectacular injury, inflicted as he made
a series of passes by the beast with his cape and sword, were
splashed in newspapers worldwide.

Aparicio left hospital two weeks later barely able to
speak.

There is intense debate in Spain over the
centuries-old tradition of bullfighting.

The northeastern region of Catalonia in July became
the first part of mainland Spain to ban bullfighting, which
animal activists condemn as a form of torture but others see
as part of the country`s cultural heritage.

In a recent opinion poll, 60 per cent of Spaniards
said they do not approve of the spectacle, which culminates
with the death of the bull from a matador`s well-placed
sword.

PTI

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