U.S. participant gored during Pamplona, Spain, bull run

PAMPLONA , Spain, July 13 (UPI) -- A U.S. participant in Pamplona, Spain's annual Running of the Bulls is in the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries after a bull gored him in the leg Wednesday, hospital officials said.

On cobblestone streets made slick by a morning rainstorm, the bull's horn tore through the left thigh of the 39-year-old man as the bull made its way to the city's Plaza del Ayuntamiento.

In an under-three-minute exercise of risk and sport, revelers are chased for a half-mile through the narrow streets by six bulls who leave a train depot and are herded to Pamplona's bullfighting ring. The unruly scene, performed daily during the city's annual Festival of San Fermin and made famous in Ernest Hemingway's 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises, draws risk-takers and literary fans from round the world.

Three other U.S. participants were gored earlier in the festival.

Five other men were injured Wednesday, 11 more were gored in earlier runs and dozens were treated for minor injuries. The festival ends Thursday and is the penultimate Running of the Bulls in history.

This year's events have been tarnished by 15 arrests in separate cases of sexual assault, including the alleged gang rape by five men of a woman, 19, and "sexual aggression," which includes rape under Spanish law. A protest by thousands of people interrupted Monday's bull run.

The arrests at Pamplona come at a time of heightened awareness of sexual assault in Europe, stemming from dozens of reported incidents at New Year's Eve 2015 celebrations in Cologne, Germany; migrants were largely blamed for the attacks, and Germany passed strict new laws, simplifying prosecution of suspected attackers. In July, dozens of women filed complaints of sexual assault at two music festivals in Sweden.