One person was gored and a further two people suffered head trauma during the first day of Spain's best-known bull-running festival in the northern town of Pamplona on Sunday, the Red Cross said.

One man was loaded into an ambulance on a stretcher shortly after the dash through the medieval town centre's narrow streets to the Bullring, which lasted two minutes and 41 seconds.

 

Thousands of runners, dressed head to toe in white, with bright-red neckerchiefs, gather every year for the traditional morning run, after which the animals are kept in the Bullring until the afternoon's fights.

This year, the bulls were from cattle breeder Puerto de San Lorenzo, whose Bulls have been responsible for one goring in the past. One person was gored on the opening day of the festival last year.

Locals and tourists alike will join in the 8am (0600 GMT) run every morning until next Sunday.

Party-goers and bull-running fans packed the main square in Pamplona on Saturday to cheer the launch of a firecracker which marks the start of the northern Spanish city's annual San Fermin festival.

Reuters