A Spanish matador is recovering in hospital after he was gored in the groin during a bullfight in front of hundreds of spectators in Madrid.
Alberto Duran, 36, was performing in the final qualifying round of the Copa Chenel bullfighting tournament on Sunday in Valdemoro, south of the Spanish capital.
Footage showed the bull rearing its head into Duran’s groin and catching him with its horns as it thrust the bullfighter into the air.
Audience members recoiled in horror as the matador managed to run away from the animal.
Duran was rushed to the hospital, where he underwent emergency surgery for a serious injury to his testicles.
While the initial surgery was completed without complications, doctors later detected a blood clot in one of Duran’s legs, meaning he had to undergo a second, urgent procedure.
The matador is currently being treated in the ICU, with his condition described as stable and improving.
The incident comes after a star bullfighter was brutally gored in the thigh, while another was lanced through his backside.
Alberto Duran, 36, was performing in the final qualifying round of the Copa Chenel bullfighting tournament on Sunday when he was gored by a bull
Footage showed the bull rearing its head into Duran’s groin
This video grab shows Duran being flung into the air by the bull
Matador Andres Roca Rey was left in a ‘very serious’ condition after being gored in the Real Maestranza bullfighting ring in Seville last month.
Footage of the incident showed Rey almost instantly being hit through the right thigh with the bull’s horns.
The bull tossed the 29-year-old around on its horns several times before it stepped on the injured matador.
Several bullfighting assistants, known in Spanish as ‘cuadrillas’, stepped in to draw the raging animal away.
He was eventually able to roll away, giving him enough time for several cuadrillas to pick him up and carry him to safety.
The wound inflicted by the bull was 35cm long and had two trajectories – one going up the leg, the other going down.
The goring also caused serious damage to key muscles in Rey’s right thigh, though no major blood vessels were hit.
Just days before, a bull drove its horn into the backside of one of Spain’s most celebrated matadors.
Audience members were seen recoiling in horror as the matador was gored
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Second matador is brutally gored days after another bullfighter was lanced through backside
Morante de la Puebla, widely hailed as the ‘King of bullfighters’, is recovering in the Viamed Hospital after being rushed out of the packed Maestranza arena in Seville on April 19.
The torero had faced a bull which had positioned itself in a treacherous spot in the ring when the incident unfolded. Attempting a daring manoeuvre, he failed to raise his arms in time, leaving himself exposed.
The animal ignored the sweep of the cape and charged, catching him behind at hip level before driving its horn into his body and perforating his rectum.
Speaking from his hospital bed after being moved out of intensive care, Morante said: ‘It was the most painful goring I’ve ever had. Wow, it was excruciating. I felt it, searching for blood.’
He also admitted the fear he felt immediately after the attack, saying: ‘It was undoubtedly the most painful goring I’ve suffered in my career.’
Separately, a former matador was gored to death last month ahead of a bullfight,
Ricardo Ortiz, 51, was unloading bulls into an arena in Malaga during Easter weekend when one of the animals gored him.
Ortiz came from a family with deep ties to bullfighting and had retired from the ring more than 20 years ago, but remained involved in managing bulls in Malaga.
Spain hosts about 1,500 bullfights annually, usually coinciding with religious festivals, though numbers have declined in recent years, according to government figures.
Opponents describe the events as barbaric, while fans defend them as a deeply rooted ancient art form.
