PAMPLONA, Spain (Reuters) - One man was gored and several others were trampled on Tuesday as thousands of bullfighting aficionados risked life and limb in Pamplona‘s annual running of the bulls festival. Experienced local runners and tourists packed the city‘s tiny cobbled streets ahead of 16 half-tonne fighting bulls and steers in the first run of the San Fermin festival, a nine-day orgy of wine and bravado. One Spaniard was gored in the thigh and a handful of runners were bruised, including one Argentine who suffered head injuries, when they fell under the hooves of the stampeding beasts in the early morning ritual. Injuries are common in the bull runs. Last year a Briton was badly gored and a young American man was killed three years ago when he was pierced through the abdomen. He was the 13th person to die at the festival this century. Nerves ran high among red and white-clad revellers - many of whom had partied all through the night - as they waited to run the 825-metre (half-mile) course between the pen where the bulls are kept and the city‘s bullring, where the animals will later die at the hands of a matador. Wild cheers erupted from the tens of thousands of onlookers positioned safely behind thick wooden barriers lining Pamplona‘s narrow streets as the more foolhardy ran up close to the animals and taunted them, hitting them with rolled-up newspapers.

But after a frantic three minutes, terror turned to elation for most of the runners, high on adrenaline after their brush with a potentially grisly death. The nine-day festival of San Fermin, the patron saint of Pamplona, is one of Spain‘s most famous institutions. American author Ernest Hemingway - himself an avid bullfighting fan who took part in several San Fermin bull runs - propelled the festival into the international limelight in his 1926 novel „The Sun Also Rises“. Last year‘s festival was temporarily suspended when the Basque separatist group ETA kidnapped and murdered Basque town councillor Miguel Angel Blanco. The killing drew millions of Spaniards into the streets to protest against ETA violence. Local politicians lifted the suspension the next day to underline that „normality“ would prevail over guerrilla violence. The San Fermin festival reportedly began in 1591, when its purpose was purely practical - to move the bulls from their pen to the bullfight arena. In the 17th century a handful of onlookers ran the gauntlet in front of the bulls and the festival gradually grew into what is now one of Spain‘s longest, best-known fiestas.