San Fermin festival kicks off in Spain

The widely known Spanish festival of San Fermin started on Monday with the so-called 'chupinazo' in Pamplona, in the northern region of Navarra, Spain.

The 'chupinazo', which signals the start of nine days of festival where the 'running of the bulls' is one of the main attractions, consists of a rocket fired into the air from the town hall in front of a crowded main square.

Thousands of people from around the world would gather at the square and more would spend those days in the city enjoying the festival which involves many activities of different kinds accompanied by drinking and eating.

The program consists of 459 main activities. Around 71 percent of them involve music, there are around 82 activities for families and there will also be fireworks, apart from the main attraction, the 'running of the bulls'.

The 'running of the bulls' takes place every morning and thousands of people run alongside and in front of the bulls. Every year there are injured people and some have been killed all over the years, while the bulls are killed in the afternoon bullfight.

3,350 members of the police will supervise the festival and more than 100 members of the Red Cross will attend the 'running of the bulls' to deal with injured people.

The San Fermin festival was depicted by Ernest Hemingway's 1926 novel "The Sun Also Rises" which made the festival internationally known.

According to the International press service in Navarre, there are 139 different media outlets from 20 countries covering the festival. A total of 685 accreditations has been issued out.

The festival dates to the 13th century and the origin is the celebration of the patron saint of Pamplona.

This celebration was originally held on October 10 but in 1591 people from Pamplona changed the date to July to enjoy better weather and when the livestock market took place, although bullfights were first documented in the 14th century.