Spanish bullfighter Ivan Fandino, 36, has died after being gored during a festival in southwest France. The incident occurred at the Aire-sur-l'Adour bullfighting festival near Pau on Saturday.
Fandino caught his feet in his cloak and fell to the floor, where the bull gored him. He suffered a lung injury and died from a heart attack on his way to hospital, according to French media. He is reportedly the first matador to die in France in a century.
The Basque-born matador had already participated in a competition earlier in the day. Photographs showed him conscious but bleeding heavily as he was led from the ring. Fandino had been injured at least twice before, including a 2015 incident in Pamplona and a more serious 2014 goring in Bayonne that left him unconscious.
Last July, Victor Barrio, 29, became the first matador to die in Spain in 30 years after being gored during a televised event. France's Sud-Ouest newspaper reported that the last matador fatality in France was in 1921, when Isidoro Mari Fernando died in Béziers.
Bullfighting was declared legal in France in 2012 after the Constitutional Council rejected a ban sought by animal rights campaigners. Opponents describe the events as barbaric, while supporters consider them an ancient art form. More than 1,000 bulls are killed annually in French bullfights.
