Shocking footage broadcast on Spanish TV showed audience members screaming and struggling to evade the animal -- a 500-kilo bull called Quesero -- which had bounded over two security barriers. After 15 minutes on the rampage, the bull was finally brought under control by rope-wielding bullring employees, who tied up the animal and killed it.
Most of those injured were treated for bruises, cuts or shock, Spanish news agency EFE reported. However, one 10-year-old boy is in critical condition at Navarra Hospital after being crushed in the stampede, and a 47-year-old man is receiving treatment for a gore wound to the back.
According to the BBC, the spectators had been watching a "recortadores" contest in the town of Tafalla, just south of Pamplona. In the event, young athletes try to get the bull to charge them so they can dodge or jump over it with quick and graceful movements. The animals are not killed in these displays, unlike traditional bullfights.
Spain is currently divided over whether the bloodier form of bullfighting should be allowed to continue. The northeastern region of Catalonia last month banned the sport. And in a recent poll for the El Pais daily, 60 percent of Spaniards said they didn't like the spectacle, which normally ends with a sword driven between the bull's shoulders. However, 57 percent were also opposed to the centuries-old tradition being outlawed.