A mother-of-two is dead after she was gored by a heifer at a festival she was attending with her husband and one of her children.
Sofia Lopez Gonzalez had tried to escape the animal behind railings after it was let loose in the streets of Moratalla in Murcia in south east Spain.
But the 47-year-old was caught on its horn and suffered a fatal injury to her abdomen. She died a few hours later in hospital.
Gonzalez’s husband and one of her two children, aged 15 and nine, witnessed the tragedy.
The dead woman was from Moratalla and alhough she lived in the nearby village of El Palmar with her family, returned every year with relatives to celebrate the week-long Cristo del Rayo festival.
Town hall chiefs announced after her death was confirmed on Sunday night that they would declare three days of mourning. Her funeral is due to take place on Tuesday.
The incident happened on the final run of the week-long festival.
The death was the first of a fatal goring of a woman during a festival involving animals this year in Spain.
Last year 12 people died at bull festivals across Spain. The vast majority of gore victims in festivals of its kind are men.
Two men died last Saturday after being gored during Pamplona-style bull runs, the same day matador Victor Barrio was killed in the ring in front of his wife.
A 65-year-old man was gored during a bull run in Fuentesauco in the province of Salamanca.
He was gored after a bull broke through a fence and attacked a group of men during the town’s annual festival.
The tragedy happened around 9pm, shortly after 29-year-old Barrio was killed in front of hundreds of spectators including his wife Raquel in a bull ring in Teruel east of Madrid.
He was transferred to hospital with another man who was also seriously injured but died shortly after arrival. The town hall later suspended the festivities.
In the early hours of the same Saturday, a 29-year-old died after being gored to death by a heifer during an annual festival in Pedreguer near Valencia on Spain’s east coast.
He was named as Ruben Frasquet Morant.
COURTESY: DAILY MAIL