4 Hurt as Pamplona Kicks Off

Spain's annual running of the drunken thrillseekers, er, bulls, kicked off today, as thousands crowded the storied streets of Pamplona to test their mettle against the beasts. The end result was four injuries (one American, one Aussie, one Brit, and one native of Pamplona, for those keeping score at home), but mercifully zero of those were gored, reports the AP. "It's tremendous how many people there are here today," said Pamplona's mayor of crowds that were swelled because the run fell on a weekend.

For the uninitiated, on each morning of the nine-day Fiesta de San Fermin, six bulls and six steers race the streets from a holding pen to a central bull ring where matadors—and near-certain death—await. Bulls have killed 15 people since 1924. "The first feeling while you're running is just surviving," says one American participant. "I feel very fortunate that the people of Pamplona should share all this with us." (More Pamplona stories.)