PAMPLONA, July 8 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Six people were injured Sunday, July 7, in the annual running of the bulls at the San Fermin festival in the Spanish city of Pamplona, medical officials said.

The victims included an American, a Briton and an Australian. Three of the wounded were gored by the bulls, set loose in the streets in a ritual made famous by author Ernest Hemingway, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

Hemingway wrote about the festival in his 1927 novel Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises.

Their lives are not in danger, the officials said. The event Sunday lasted for seven minutes, more than twice as long as the usual running time.

The bulls are set loose every day to run toward the stadium where bullfights take place during the nine-day festival.

Some people were gored by the animals’ horns as a number of the bulls slipped on the dew-covered cobblestones on their way to the city bullring, reported BBC’s online news service.

Partly as a result of this, the 825-meter-run through the narrow, winding streets took over seven minutes - more than twice the usual time.

The San Fermin festival begins on the morning of each 7 July, when thousands of spectators - mostly men - run alongside six bulls from a pen to the arena.

Every year, tens of thousands of foreigners flock to the San Fermin festival, but the numbers at the opening run were unusually high because it fell on a Sunday, BBC’s online news service reported.

The fighting bulls are killed by matadors each afternoon. The bulls usually injure several people each day. Since the start of the last century, 13 runners have been fatally gored or trampled to death, it said. The last to die was an American, Matthew Tassio of Illinois, in 1995.

The running of the bulls dates back to 1591, when its purpose was to move the bulls into the arena.

Jose Maria Perez, a 32-year-old Spaniard, suffered the most serious injury when he was gouged in the thigh. An American identified as Elinzey Sain, 19, and Australian Luke Versace both got hit in their left knees at the end of the run, reported the New York Daily News.

Former Egyptian Mufti, Dr. Nasr Farid Wassel, said that it is impermissible to condone or participate in bull fighting competitions because the animals are tortured in these competitions.

He said that most European countries, with the exception of Spain, have banned these kinds of competitions and it is better for Muslims to stay away from them and substitute them with other kinds of sports that are more beneficial for the body.

He said that Islam is a religion of mercy and that it is encouraged to have mercy on all of Allah’s creatures, animals included.