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PAMPLONA, Spain -- Several people were trampled when thousands took part in the first bull run of the San Fermin festival in northern Spain but all avoided serious injury.
Since 1910 at least 13 people have been killed in the festival, in which men run as close as possible ahead of five bulls from the Torre Estrella ranch without being gored.
An American tourist was the last to be killed, in 1995, but overcrowding has increased the danger of the event.
On Wednesday only five people were taken to hospital after the traditional 825-meter (900-yard) sprint through Pamplona's cobbled streets and no one was reported gored.
One tourist, Brian Barnes, a 27-year-old engineer from Chicago, said he had had a narrow escape. "I was about five feet away from them, I was really thinking I was going to get it in the back," he told Reuters after the race.
One man was stretchered away after he was hit in the back by a bull with its horn and another man who had tripped had a lucky escape when the animal simply stepped over him.
Ben Dutzar, a scientist from Seattle, fell on the final stretch.
"It scared the hell out of me. When I fell there were two in front and the rest behind me. So I had to get out of there," a bleeding Dutzar told Reuters.
"You're not even thinking. You're just ... sprinting. The elation at the end of it. You're just ecstatic," said a 23-year-old accountant from Adelaide, Australia, Jim Atkinson.
For many thousands of tourists from around the world, it is the sprint of their lives.
"Running ahead of bulls is life and I wanted to feel alive," Ray Sabbatini, 36, of Wisconsin, told The Associated Press.
Sabbatini, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, was accompanied by his friend Dennis Rodman, the retired American National Basketball League star.
"I wasn't afraid," added Rodman. "I like strong emotions."
The bull runs continue daily, starting at 8 a.m., until July 14.
The San Fermin festival, famed for its all-night street parties, dates from the 16th century. It gained worldwide fame from Ernest Hemingway's 1926 novel, "The Sun Also Rises."
Not everyone is so enthusiastic though, and on the eve of Wednesday's event, semi-nude members of the animal protection group, PETA, held up banners reading, "Stop The Bloody Bullfights."
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2004-07-07, 05:26 PM
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