Andres Roca Rey - aged just 19 from Peru - had been back on his feet for only a few days after being knocked unconscious during an earlier event
HORRIFIC images of a teenage bullfighter apparently being gored by a rampant bull during a tournament have created a grim online sensation.
Matador Andres Roca Rey - aged just 19 from Peru - had been back on his feet for only a few days after being knocked unconscious during an earlier event.
And amazingly Rey has already been gored four times in just a year.
Now shocking film footage of the latest attack in Palencia, Spain, show he is lucky to be alive.
One watcher said: "He has to be wondering if he's chosen the right line of work."
The bull can be seen catching Rey on its horns as the matador attempts a flamboyant pass with his cloak.
Shocked spectators can see the teenager being sent spinning around the bull's horns before he is hurled to the arena's sand floor.
Then - for a heart-stopping moment before help can get to him - the young bullfighter is gored and trampled by the furious 1,400-lb animal.
Spectators feared the worst as his apparently lifeless body was carried away by helpers while others distracted the bull.
But organisers of the San Antolin festival say he was treated in the bullring's medical centre and transferred to the emergency room at Rio Carrion hospital.
The extent of his injuries has not been made clear but he is said to have suffered concussion and a shattered right cheek bone and has been ordered to rest by medics.
In an earlier spectacular brush with death in Malaga, Rey had been battered unconscious by the bull he was fighting.
His head injuries were so substantial he suffered from extended amnesia, say local reports.
Rookie Rey - who has only been bullfighting for a year - is considered brave but raw by fans.
A tournament spokesman said: "He does not need surgery but the doctors have ordered him to rest."
Last month at the Malagueta arena and cap a disastrous year for the teen bullfighter.
Last November, rookie Roca Rey lost two of his teeth after being savagely speared through the mouth.
Clearly undeterred by that horrific injury, the matador entered the ring again in April only to be stabbed through the bottom by an angry beast.
The teenager reportedly screamed in agony as he was carried out of the Real Maestranza bullring in Seville.
And in July, the South American was outwitted for a third time by another animal who tossed him around like a plaything and gored him at the San Fermin Festival in Pamplona.
However, Roca Rey isn’t the only matador to have the tables turned on him by a mighty bull.
Yesterday, Saúl Jiménez Fortes, 25, was gored twice in the neck by a half-tonne beast at the San Isidro festival in Madrid.
The young matador was tossed around by the powerful bull before the animal plunged its horns into Jiménez's neck as he fell.
The bullfighter managed to get to his feet following the brutal attack and was rushed out of the ring by staff.
Jiménez, from Malaga, suffered a 15cm cut to his neck with the bull’s horn narrowly missing his carotid artery which if severed could have been fatal.
The cowardly Spaniard underwent emergency surgery at the Las Ventas bullring after also suffering a 10cm on the left side of his chin before being taken to hospital.
Medics reportedly said he was in a “serious condition”.
The heroic bull was cruelly slaughtered by another matador after the defeated Jiménez was dragged out of the ring.
Last year Jimenez was one of the three bullfighters gored in one fight at the San Isidro festival.
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