American Marconi Wireless News - 57 gored or bruised during Spain's San Fermin bull runs

An 18-year-old man suffered a gore wound to the thigh and a 46-year-old man was gored in the chest, while the remaining eight were taken to hospital with bruises of varying severity, the Navarre regional government said in a statement.

The bulls completed the 848.6-metre (928-yard) course from a holding pen to the city bull ring in two minutes and 25 seconds.

Each morning for eight days, hundreds of daredevils, many wearing traditional white shirts with red scarves tied around their necks, tested their bravery by running ahead of a pack of bulls through the narrow, winding streets of the medieval city. The vast majority are men.

The bulls face almost certain death in afternoon bullfights featuring Spain's top matadors.

The San Fermin festival, which was made famous by Ernest Hemingway's 1926 novel "The Sun Also Rises", draws people from around the world.

Four men who took part in this year's bull runs were gored, including a 30-year-old Spanish man who was pierced by a horn in the face.

Five of the 57 injured are foreign nationals: two Britons, an Australian, an American and a German who was gored in his left arm.

Although the runs are over, the festival's closing ceremony will take place at midnight (2200 GMT).

Sixteen people have been killed in the bull runs since records started in 1911. The last death was in 2009 when a bull gored a 27-year-old Spaniard in the neck, heart and lungs.

T.Ward--AMWN