A Spanish matador has died after being gored by a bull during a festival in southwest France, marking the first such fatality in the country in nearly a century.
Ivan Fandino, 36, caught his feet in his cloak and fell to the ground, where the bull gored him, causing a lung injury. He suffered a heart attack and died on the way to hospital on Saturday, according to French media.
The incident occurred at the Aire-sur-l'Adour bullfighting festival near Pau. Fandino, who was born in the Basque region, had already competed earlier that day. Photographs showed him conscious but bleeding heavily as he was led from the ring.
The last matador to die in France was Isidoro Mari Fernando in 1921, in Béziers. In Spain, bullfighter Victor Barrio, 29, became the first matador killed there in 30 years last July, after being gored during a televised event.
Fandino had been injured at least twice before: in 2015, when thrown into the air by a bull in Pamplona, and more seriously in 2014, when he was knocked unconscious in Bayonne.
Bullfighting remains controversial, with opponents calling it barbaric while supporters defend it as an ancient art form. It was declared legal in France in 2012, and more than 1,000 bulls are killed annually in French bullfights.
