San Fermín 2026 is underway. Day 7 of 9.
Pamplona’s running of the bulls draws its crowds in July, but Encierro is in the city long before and long after the rockets fire, because our instructors run this course themselves every year. This encierro news July 2026 roundup covers what happened on Sunday’s course and in the city, the kind of detail that only shows up when you are watching the route, not the highlight reel.
Sixth Encierro Injures Nine as a Packed Sunday Route Turns Dangerous at Telefónica
Diario de Navarra, Orain, and Pamplona Actual, July 12, 2026
Sunday’s sixth encierro ran with bulls from the ganadería (bull-breeding ranch) of La Palmosilla, of Cádiz, on a route packed for the fiesta’s only full Sunday. The run took 2 minutes 23 seconds. The herd stretched out early on the Santo Domingo climb, then split apart through Estafeta, leaving runners piled at Mercaderes and again at the top of Estafeta. The most dangerous moment came on the descent to the callejón (the narrow chute connecting the street route to the bullring), where a bull charged into a group of fallen runners.
Nine runners were treated. A hospital correction issued shortly after the run downgraded the horn injury first reported at the bullring infirmary to a superficial wound to the elbow. Three runners were taken to the Doctor San Martín outpatient center and five to the Hospital Universitario de Navarra, with injuries including a thoracic contusion, a leg contusion, and a shoulder contusion with deformity. Cruz Roja separately logged 42 total attentions during the run itself, with five of its own transfers plus two more by the DYA ambulance service.
Of Friday’s and Saturday’s injured runners: the man hospitalized since July 10 with a collapsed rib cage remains in intensive care but is improving, and is expected to move to a general ward within hours; the runner with the fractured hip from that same day remains in the trauma ward. The runner gored in the face on July 11 underwent surgery and is now in stable condition in the ICU. Separately, Municipal Police removed the runner known as “El Joker” from the route before Sunday’s run began, phone still in hand, the latest incident in a pattern we reported July 11.
“Desde el hospital informan de que, finalmente, el atendido en la plaza de toros tiene una herida superficial por asta en un codo,” (The hospital now reports that the runner treated at the bullring has a superficial horn wound to the elbow), read the corrected medical bulletin. Read the original article.
Mercaderes Photograph Wins the XVI International Encierro Photography Prize
Pamplona Actual, July 12, 2026
The Asociación de Periodistas de Navarra, with the Gobierno de Navarra, the Ayuntamiento de Pamplona, and local sponsors, awarded its XVI Concurso Internacional de Fotografía del Encierro (CIFE) to accredited press photographers. Miguel González won first prize, 1,000 euros funded by the city, for an image taken at the Mercaderes stretch. Sergio Gago took second prize for a photo from the end of Estafeta, and Marta Roca received the Special Jury Prize for a bullring image. Ten additional prizes went out, one for each stretch of the route, chosen from 91 submitted photographs by 33 photographers, the same field size as last year. Winners received a trophy cut from a retired vallado (the wooden barrier fencing that lines the route, broken periodically by emergency gaps for runners) post at a July 11 ceremony.
“El encierro dura apenas unos minutos, pero los fotógrafos consiguen con su mirada captar la emoción, la tensión, la belleza y la autenticidad de una tradición,” (The encierro lasts barely a few minutes, but photographers manage to capture the emotion, tension, beauty, and authenticity of a tradition), said Pamplona’s first deputy mayor, Garbiñe Bueno. Read the original article.
From the Archive
Telefónica produced the run’s other tense moment today. For what makes that stretch dangerous every year, see our guide to Telefónica: The Final Funnel of the Encierro Route.
Compiled by the Encierro editorial team. encierro.com tracks Pamplona’s encierro, its city, and its fiesta year-round, with instruction from active bull runners who have run San Fermín for decades.