Thrill-seekers have avoided any gorings on the fourth bull run of Pamplona’s San Fermin Festival.

The hospital in the city in northern Spain said four men aged 24-43 required medical treatment for hard knocks they received during Sunday’s early morning run. One man needed to be evacuated on a stretcher to an ambulance wearing a neck brace.

The six bulls took two-and-a-half minutes to charge through the 875-metre course in Pamplona’s old quarter. They remained in a tight pack along with the six tame oxen that accompanied them.

The run finishes at Pamplona’s bullring, where later in the day the bulls are killed by professional bullfighters.

Animal rights activists have campaigned against the slaughter of the animals, but bullfights are still popular among segments of Spanish society and remain an integral part of the San Fermin festival.

There have been no gorings in the bull runs so far this year, with four days remaining.

Eight people were gored in 2019, the last festival before a two-year hiatus due to the Covid pandemic. Sixteen people have died in Pamplona’s bull runs since 1910, with the last death in 2009.

Tens of thousands of foreign visitors come to the Pamplona festival that was made known to the English-speaking world through Ernest Hemingway’s 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises.

The few thousand participants in the early morning bull runs are split between expert locals who try to sprint in front of the bulls’ horns, and newcomers who are often fortunate to escape hairy situations.

The twisting, narrow cobblestone streets are sprayed with a substance to help prevent the bulls and oxen from slipping, especially on the tight corners. But that does not stop runners from tumbling over one another as they frantically try to get out of the way.

Only good luck, or the magnanimity of the bulls, has spared many a runner a goring.

Thousands of festival-goers watch the action either from balconies or by arriving well before dawn to grab a spot on the wooden barriers lining the course. Almost everyone wears the festival’s traditional white T-shirt and trousers with red sash and neckerchief.