Pedreguer bull-running death: French tourist is gored to death at festival in Spain

Officials in Pedreguer, in Alicante, said the 44-year-old had been standing with friends when he was gored by one of the bulls

The last 'encierro' (bull-run) of the San Fermin Festival in Pamplona, northern Spain, on July 14 (ANDER GILLENEA/AFP/Getty Images)

A French tourist has been gored to death during a bull-running event at a festival in eastern Spain.

Officials in Pedreguer, in Alicante, said the 44-year-old man had been standing with friends when he was gored by one of the bulls during the event held as part of the town's summer festival.

The death came as Spain's most famous bull-running festival, San Fermin in Pamplona, came to an end on Tuesday.

It is the third death by goring recorded at festivals across Spain in recent weeks, although none of them were at Pamplona.

Bull runs are a traditional part of the summer festival season across Spain. Ten people, including four Americans, were gored at the Pamplona festival this year, although none of them died.

There have been a total of 15 fatal gorings at the famous festival since 1924.

In the final run at Pamplona this year, hundreds of people raced six fighting bulls, with one charging into a group of runners and knocking about ten people to the ground.

The July fiesta was immortalised in Ernest Hemingway's 1926 novel "The Sun Also Rises" and dates back to the 16th century.

Each year thousands of tourists travel to take part in the run, which sees people racing with the bulls through a narrow course from a holding pen to the city's bullring.

The bulls are then killed by professional matadors each afternoon during the course of the festival.

Earlier this month more than 100 semi-naked activists covered in blood red paint launched a protest against the event outside the entrance to the Pamplona bullring.

Animal rights protesters demonstrate for the abolition of bull runs and bullfights (Reuters)

More than 100 protestors gathered outside the bull ring for the stunt (Photo: PETA) ((Photo PETA))

The activists, from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), and AnimaNaturalis, held up signs saying: "Pamplona's streets are stained with bulls' blood."

PETA Director Mimi Bekhechi said: "PETA is calling on Spain to end its widely condemned Running of the Bulls event- and, with it, the horrific suffering and abuse of bulls."

Additional reporting by AP