A man killed over the weekend whilst filming a bull-running event on his smartphone is the fourth person to be fatally gored at festivals across Spain this year.
David Mellado Lopez, who travelled from a neighbouring village to see the festival on Saturday and Sunday, was gored in the back of the neck by a bull in Villaseca de la Sagra, in central Spain at around 1.40 a.m. on Sunday morning.
On Sunday afternoon, Mellado Lopez died of the injuries he sustained when the bull pinned him up against the wall of a house. The last fatality in bull-running in Villaseca de la Sagra was in 2010, when a 41-year-old carpenter was gored by a running bull.
Mellado Lopez, 32, is the fourth man to have been killed in a bull run this year in Spain, where there are as many as 3,000 bull running events every year.
In July, a 44-year-old Frenchman was killed by a bull while filming Spain's most famous bull-running festival in San Fermin in Pamplona, Alicante.
In June this year in Coria, west Spain, Martin Caballero, 43, died from a 12-inch wound to his stomach, after a bull pushed its horns through the metal security railings Cabellero was standing behind.
2015's first bull-running fatality occurred earlier in June in Ampolla, just south of Barcelona, when a 70-year-old man was gored by a bull which had fireworks attached to its horns.
Although no other deaths have been recorded in Pamplona this year, ten people, including four Americans, have been injured after being gored by bulls at the Pamplona festival. Fifteen people have died from gorings in the Pamplona festival since 1924.
Every year, from July 7-14 thousands of runners attend Pamplona's bull-running fiesta. The tradition is thought to date back as far as the 13th century.
Around six bulls are used in each race and, after they have been released to run the streets, they are killed by professional bullfighters.
Jesus Hijosa, the mayor of Villaseca de la Sagra where the latest death occurred, described the incident to the Guardian newspaper: "The young man was on the path of a bull run which he was filming with his mobile phone," he said. "A bull surprised him from behind and gored him in the neck."
"This sends shivers down our spine ... we organise these events as a tradition, so that people can enjoy them, but these things happen."
"Bulls are dangerous animals and when there are a lot of people some don't pay attention ... you have to have your wits about you," Hijosa added.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) regularly calls on Spain bring an end to the running of the bulls and bullfighting events in general.
Last month, around 100 PETA protesters gathered at the entrance to a bullring in Pamplona covered in blood-red body-paint, to demonstrate about the dangers of bull-running and the ill-treatment of the bulls used in the festivals.
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