MADRID: Six people were hurt on the first day of this year’s bull runs in Pamplona, Spain, medics said on Sunday, reported German news agency (dpa).

One person suffered head trauma, the other five mainly bruises, a spokesman for the local health service told public broadcaster RTVE.

Several of the injured were hospitalised.

Each day between July 7 and 14, hundreds of people will chase six massive bulls, some weighing over 600 kilogrammes, and several oxen through Pamplona’s narrow alleyways into an arena.

The bulls are corralled into the Pamplona’s bullring where they are then killed by matadors during bullfights.

Dozens of runners, most of them young men, are injured every year in the race along the 875-metre-long course. There have been 16 fatalities since 1924, the last in 2009.

Animal rights activists call the bull runs “medieval cruelty”.

Despite this, the festival continues to attract thousands of visitors from all over the world. - Bernama, dpa