One of Spain’s top matadors was seriously injured in Mexico when a 500-kilo bull gored him in the groin and hoisted him into the air, causing major blood loss.
Jose Tomas lost up to eight litres of blood after being gored by a bull named Navegante in the city of Aguascalientes on Saturday.
The bull’s horn penetrated 15cm into the 34-year-old’s groin and punctured a vein and an artery, manager Salvador Boix told Spanish radio station Cadena Ser from Aguascalientes.
Television pictures showed another matador trying to stem the rush of blood with his hand as Tomas was carried out of the ring.
He lost so much blood announcers made an urgent appeal across the bullring's tannoy system seek blood donors.
Spain's El Pais newspaper said Tomas's injury was so serious that the bullring doctors who first operated on him did not have time to anaesthetise him.
Tomas is now recovering in the intensive care unit of a local hospital.
Matador Manuel Diaz "El Cordobes" was seriously gored during a bullfight at the Monumental Bullring in Barcelona yesterday.