A young man dies after catching an embolado bull, the fourth victim in the Valencian festivities this summer

Image of an embolado bull in Nules, from the festivities three years ago.Ángel Sánchez

A young man, a resident of Segorbe, has died after suffering a bull attack last Friday at the Bullfighting Week festivities in the Castellón municipality of Soneja.

The man, 18 years old and a resident of the nearby town of Segorbe, was the subject of "a showy catch by the embolado bull", according to a statement from the Soneja City Council.

The embolado bull is the modality of the popular summer celebrations in which the beef runs through an urban area carrying two balls set on fire on its horns thanks to a fitting.

At the time of the catch, around midnight, the balls were already off, according to the

newspaper .

In some towns, such as the districts of Valencia, embolado bulls, or

, as they are known in Valencian.

The young man was transferred first to the Sagunto hospital and later to a center in Valencia, due to the seriousness of the injuries caused by being violently rammed in one of the streets of Soneja.

The City Council of the population has issued a statement on its social networks in which it declares three days of mourning.

“This is the worst news we would have wanted to give to end Bullfighting Week.

It is news that fills us with deep sadness and regret, ”says the mayor, the socialist Benjamín Escriche, in the note.

For its part, the Segorbe City Council has sent its condolences to the family and has transferred its support "in everything they need".

“On behalf of Segorbe and its neighbors, we express our solidarity and our regret for such sad news,” he says.

This is the fourth fatality that the bullfighting festivities developed in the streets of various towns in the Valencian Community have claimed during this summer.

A Valencian, an Albacete and a French died in different hospitals in just 24 hours, between July 18 and 19, due to injuries caused by the antlers in the celebrations held that month in the Valencian municipalities of Picassent and Meliana and in the Pedreguer from Alicante.

In addition, a 14-year-old minor was seriously injured at the Puçol festivities on July 3, although the child was able to recover.

Until the end of July, the Ministry of Justice and the Interior of the Generalitat had authorized 1,500 festivities with the forecast that by the end of the year the figure of 9,000 will be reached in more than two hundred municipalities.

The Federation of Bullfighting Clubs of Bous al Carrer raised that figure to 13,000 at the beginning of summer.

After the pandemic, the celebrations have multiplied until reaching a number similar to that of 2019.

The organization and security of the festivities are the responsibility of the bullfighting clubs of the towns and the Town Halls.

After the death of the three people in July, the Ministry once again sent a circular to the municipalities recalling the regulations and prohibitions.

Then, the Animalist Party Against Animal Abuse (PACMA) asked the organizers of bullfighting festivities and administrations to be held accountable for "authorizing the festival and endangering the lives of citizens, and inflicting abuse on animals."

There were no more relevant political reactions regarding the first three deaths in parties that were especially rooted in the Valencian Community and in the so-called Terres de l'Ebre in Catalonia.

Last week, the Catalan president, Pere Aragonès, defended the need to transform these traditions based on consensus, to prevent the territory from perceiving it as “an imposition from Barcelona”.