Running at full speed with horns out to attack: Shocking moment a raging bull rammed a fearless reveller into the sea

By GERARD COUZENS IN PAMPLONA and ROB PREECE

On the rampage: A bull chases a man into the sea during the Bous a la Mar festival in the eastern Spanish coastal town of Denia

Hurtling at full speed with its horns ready to strike, a raging bull runs into a man and shoves him into the sea as other revellers look on in shock.
The terrifying moment happened during the Bous a la Mar festival in Denia, on the eastern coast of Spain, in which men emerge from protective barriers and encourage bulls to chase them.
The festival took place as two British men spoke of how they were gored by a bull at Spain's most famous festival.
Liam Tarff, 29, and 20-year-old Nick Couchman were attacked when the half-ton animal, called Runaway, broke off from the main pack at the Running of the Bulls festival in Pamplona.

Jumping in: Revellers emerge from protective barriers to provoke bulls into chasing them into the water

Mr Tarff, an insurance worker from Brixton, London, was gored in the left thigh.
Fellow Londoner Nick Couchman, a 20-year old events organiser, was gored in the right thigh.
Mr Tarff, who managed a thumbs up to the crowd as he was carried away in agony on a stretcher with a blood-soaked bandage around his leg, said: 'It was a feeling of sheer panic when I saw the bull stop, turn round and run towards me.
'I was trapped against the barriers with people crowded around me and no fast way out.
'I felt its horn go through my leg. It was like being stabbed with a large knife.

Dangerous: Grinning men watch and hold the bull's horn after the animal joins the man in the water

Mr Tarff, an insurance worker from Brixton, London, was gored in the left thigh.
Fellow Londoner Nick Couchman, a 20-year old events organiser, was gored in the right thigh.
Mr Tarff, who managed a thumbs up to the crowd as he was carried away in agony on a stretcher with a blood-soaked bandage around his leg, said: 'It was a feeling of sheer panic when I saw the bull stop, turn round and run towards me.
'I was trapped against the barriers with people crowded around me and no fast way out.
'I felt its horn go through my leg. It was like being stabbed with a large knife.

Gorged: Laim Tarff was helpless to stop the half ton bull piecing his left thigh with its horn. He is pictured here with the bandaged leg recovering in hospital

'I fell to the ground and managed to crawl under the barrier.
'The next thing first aiders were poking their fingers into my open wound to check there were no pieces of bull horn stuck inside and then I was carried off into an ambulance.
'I only did the run for a friend who's celebrating his 30th birthday and dreamed of taking part. He's due to become a father in September and everyone was telling him not to do it but he survived unscathed.
'I'm starting to realise now just how lucky I've been.
'If the bull's horn had gone in a few inches higher through somewhere like my heart, I probably would not have been around to tell the tale.

Terrifying: A reveler tries to escape a bull in the bull ring, at the end of third running of the bulls at the San Fermin fiestas, in Pamplona

'Fortunately the doctors have told me I'll be okay.'
He added: 'The ironic thing is that I've been staying off the alcohol to make sure sure I'm in form for the run with the bulls every morning. I'm probably the most sober person at the festival.
'We tried to do the run on Sunday but were turned back because there were too many people.
'We saw other people who were off their heads running barefoot.
'The experience has been worth it but I don't think I'll be repeating it in a hurry.'
Friend Paul Edwards, 29, one of a group of five pals Liam ran with, added: 'We knew he had been gored from the live TV images they showed in the bullring after the run.

Daredevils: A runner looks alarmed as he is tossed into the air by a rampaging bull

'But we couldn't get to see him for over an hour so we didn't know how bad it was.
'We were joking before we came over that one of us was going to get gored and the images were going to be all over Youtube but we never imagined it would happen for real.'

source: dailymail

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I'm head over hooves: Bull pulls off his party trick during encounter with matador

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER

Spanish bullfighter Jose Palazon looks on as his first bull tumbles headfirst during the last bullfight of San John's Hogueras Fair held in Alicante, Spain

Usually they just paw the ground, put their heads down and charge.
This bull, however, seems to have been determined to put on more of a show during his encounter with Spanish matador Jose Palazon.
Perhaps encouraged by his opponent’s somewhat attention-grabbing green and black ensemble, the creature bounded into action, performing an astonishing head flip that flicked up the sand in the arena.
It’s a good job his horns didn’t sink into the ground, otherwise he might have been stuck like that...

The fight was part of a traditional fiesta in Alicante, eastern Spain, celebrating one of the most important festivals in the city’s cultural calendar.
Las Hogueras de San Juan – the Bonfires of St John – marks the feast day of St John and lasts five days.
Bullfighting is one of Spain’s most popular sports, but critics say it is cruel because the animals are baited and then killed.

source: dailymail

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'Enough is enough': Incredible moment a bull threw off a cowboy and tried to jump on HIS back

By MARTIN ROBINSON

Flung: The bull throws the rider off his back during a Slovakian rodeo

In the ultimate role-reversal this is the moment a bad-tempered bull decided he would try to ride a cowboy.
It ditched the hapless rider during a rodeo in Hodkovce, Slovakia and attempted to get on the man's back.
After being flung off, the cowboy scrambled to his feet and ran from the bull but the enormous animal jumped on top of him - narrowly missing his head with his hooves.

Revenge: As the cowboy scrambled to get to his feet and run from the bull, the enormous animal jumped on top of him

And when the man finally managed to wriggle away, the bull lowered his head- and enormous horns - and placed them between the rider's legs - to the horror of the watching crowd.
Terrified fellow riders rushed to frighten away the bull, and pull their friend to safety.
Photographer Peter Majkut caught all the action on camera.
He said: 'During the rodeo shows, it's quite normal to see the riders go flying and witness some nasty injuries.

'But this bull had clearly just decided enough was enough.
'It really looked as though the bull had decided it was his turn to ride - and jumped on top of the man.
'But his friends came running over quickly, and managed to corner the bull with a bull pen before anyone got hurt.
'The rider hobbled away, not seriously injured, but I think his pride was a bit dented.'

source: dailymail

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Matador cheats death at festival after bull's horn blinds him in one eye and paralyses half his face

By LEE MORAN

Caught: The bull's horn pierced Juan Jose Padilla's jaw and emerged through his left eye socket during the grizzly incident at the northeastern city of Zaragoza's Fiestas Del Pilar

A Spanish matador has been blinded in his left eye and paralysed down that side of his face after he was horrifically gored during a bullfight.

The bull's horn pierced Juan Jose Padilla's jaw and emerged through his left eye socket during the grizzly incident at the northeastern city of Zaragoza's Fiestas Del Pilar event yesterday.

With blood gushing from his head, he was helped out of the ring screaming 'I can't see, I can't see'.


Before: Padilla moves to place the banderillas into the bull

He then underwent a life-saving five-hour operation to repair severe damage to his eye, bone, muscle and skin, said Spain's taurine press.

The bull, called Marques and from the Ana Romero ranch, quickly took its revenge after Padilla slipped and fell in the sand after the placing of the banderillas (barbed sticks).


During: But he slips as he turns around from the ball and falls to the floor

Doctors had initially thought the goring, of which footage exists on Youtube and was shown on Spanish TV channel Canal+ Toros, would be fatal.

But the bullring's doctor Antonio Val-Carreres later told El Pais newspaper that Padilla was in serious condition and was staying at Zaragoza's Miguel Servet hospital.


During: The bull then takes its revenge on Padilla by goring him in his face

Although matadors are regularly hurt, the last two fatalities of senior matadors were those of Francisco Rivera Paquirri in 1984 and Jose Cubero Sanchez 'El Yiyo' in 1985.

Those events triggered national mourning and led to a resurgence of interest in the bullfight. The six bulls fought at each corrida inevitably are killed.

Marques was later put to the sword by the senior matador on the bill, Miguel Abellan, who killed it with tears streaming down his face.


After: With blood gushing from his face, and his assistants distracting the bull, Padilla is helped from the ring


Before: Juan Jose Padilla pictured three months before the goring during July's San Fermin fiestas in Pamplona

source: dailymail

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Get out of my way! The bulls of Pamplona go running… over the backs of revellers

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER

Ouch! Revellers crouch for cover as a bull jumps over them to get into the arena


Thousands of thrill-seekers dashed ahead of six fighting bulls in the streets of the northern Spanish city of Pamplona today in the first running of the bulls in this year's San Fermin festival.

Miraculously no one was gored, but one person was hospitalized after falling in the sprint, said Spanish Red Cross spokesman Jose Aldaba. In all, four people needed treatment by medical staff.

The bulls, from the Torrestrella farm, accompanied by six guiding steers charged down the 849 metre course from a pen to the city's bull ring in two minutes and 30 exhilarating seconds.


That's got to hurt! A 'mozo' or runner is painfully flipped over when a young bull catches him with a horn between the legs


Runners, wearing traditional white clothing and red handkerchiefs around their necks, tripped over each other or fell in the mad rush but avoided getting caught out by the charging bulls.

There were some unexpected moments as one of the steers separated from the pack and charged back towards the starting gate, sending runners scattering after they thought their dash was over.

Another steer stopped and laid down on the pavement near the end before eventually being guided into bullring, where the six bulls will take part in the afternoon's bullfight.



Stampede: The fighting bulls charge round a corner on their way to the ring as the runners try to keep up


Hoofed: a reveller winces as he is trampled after falling on the street


'The truth is there were very few people for the first running, so it was quite comfortable,' said 20-year-old Julen Iruzun, who was taking part in his third 'encierro,' the Spanish term for the run.

'That must be one odd steer' Iruzun said about the wandering one, 'but these things happen.'

The runs take place each morning at 8 a.m. and are televised across Spain.

People come from all over the world to test their bravery and enjoy the festival's nonstop street parties which last until July 14.

The festival was immortalized by author Ernest Hemingway in his 1926 novel 'The Sun Also Rises'.


Taking it easy: Runners are forced to wait while a cow that took a tumble on the cobbled street gets to its feet. Right, locals cheer from their balconies as the the bull run rushes past on the way to the town arena


Steer crazy: The angry animals rampage down the street as festival goers, dressed in traditional red and white, urge them on


A sangria-soaked runner is pressed up against a wall by a bad-tempered bull


At the end of each run, that last around two and a half minutes, the animals are led into the city's bullring


Spain bull running festival gets underway


source: dailymail

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That's the trouble with fast food: Four lions left sheepish and hungry after failing to catch antelope who legs it to safety

By EMILY ALLEN

Take that: A lioness leaps powerfully into the air in a bid to take down a kudu bull - but he is too agile for her. Safari-goers captured the drama in a game reserve in South Africa's Eastern Cape


Four lions were left with their tails between their legs - and with empty stomachs - after a defenceless antelope escaped their clutches.

The agile kudu leapt to safety as the pride attempted to make it their lunch at a game reserve in South Africa's Eastern Cape.

Safari-goers recorded the failed attempt - but made a quick getaway when they realised the lions were probably quite peckish.


Looking for lunch: The lions crouch ready to spring as they spot the kudu in the distance


British safari boss Steve Bailey, who was leading the group of tourists, told the Mirror: 'Some of them were pretty shaken.'

The spectacular photos show the lion and three lionesses spying their kudu dinner in the distance and crouching ready for the attack.

In a menacing assault the four ambush the antelope and it appears that its minutes are numbered.


No going back: One of the lions rounds up the antelope as the others crouch in readiness for the attack


But the kill, which should have been easy, turns to chaos when the kudu springs more than six feet into the air, butting the lion which tries to grab her out of the way, clearing the pride and escaping.

The four are left to watch their tasty snack thunder off into the distance.

The spectacle proves that life in sub Saharan Africa for even the strongest of predators can sometimes get tough.


Power struggle: The lion strikes as the lionesses close in. It looks hopeless for the kudu



Against all the odds: The kudu leaps over the pride and breaks for freedom, leaving the lions behind as it thunders into the distance


source: dailymail

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Ivor itch: How a bull with urge to scratch himself on telegraph pole plunged villages into darkness

By LUKE SALKELD

Disruptive bull: Ivor the five-year-old bull that caused the power cuts near the village on Saunton, Devon, by rubbing himself against a telegraph pole


He certainly looks like a powerful beast, even when he’s not at full charge.
This 2,000lb bull cast a shadow over 500 homes by scratching his rump on a small electricity pylon.

Three remote villages were left without power, suffering regular blackouts as the animal kept disconnecting them from the National Grid.

Residents of Saunton, Croyde and Georgeham, on the north Devon coast, were sporadically plunged into darkness for hours.


The field at Saunton where power company workers saw the bull rubbing himself against the wire stays


The source of the problem baffled power company chiefs until engineers spotted five-year-old Ivor in action after a four-day search involving a helicopter, electronic pathfinder equipment and a team of engineers on foot.

An investigation revealed a steel pole supporting the pylon near Saunton Golf Club had been left ‘shiny’ from where the animal had been rubbing against it. The contact made a pole wobble causing internal wires to hit together, breaking the circuit.


The bull rubbed himself against these wire stays. In doing so he iis thought to have triggered automatic circuit breakers that caused the power cuts


Western Power Distribution spokesman Irene Evans said: ‘It was quite a hefty animal and had caused some damage. We think he’d been busy for a while.’

Georgeham and Mortehoe parish councillor Pat Barker said the villages were not on the mains gas supply and residents relied on their electricity supply more than most.

‘One Sunday we had a power cut that lasted for eight or nine hours,’ she said. ‘We’re out on a limb and, without power, things can get pretty bad. One night I had to cook dinner on an open fire.’

Betty Wickins, 79, who lives in Croyde, said: ‘We have a lot of power cuts round here, but they got especially bad a few weeks ago – there were three in one morning.

'It’s very difficult to keep warm at this time of the year as it is.’

Once they’d discovered the problem, engineers had to shut down the power manually to make emergency repairs and put up fencing around the pylon.

The bull’s owner, Roland Dibble, 82, of Warren Farm in Saunton, said: ‘I was pretty stunned when I saw half a dozen vans on my land investigating the power cuts.
‘I assumed it had been the bad weather causing blackouts.’


Protection: The pole has now had a wooden fence built around it to protect it from further bull antics

source: dailymail

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