Widow of Spanish bullfighter Victor Barrio reveals heartbreak after husband gored to death

The widow of bullfighter Victor Barrio has described the death of her husband in the bullring as a "nightmare." Award-winning bullfighter Víctor Barrio, 29, was gored to death in a tournament on Saturday (9 July).

The Segovia bullfighter was mauled by the 87-stone animal during the Feria del Ángel festival, in the town of Teruel in Aragon, Eastern Spain as his wife, sister, father and grandparents looked on.

The shocking scenes were also screened live on local TV. It is the first time a matador has been gored to death in over 30 years.

Raquel Sanz, 32, has now opened up about her heartbreak following her husband's death. She told Spanish daily La Razon the scene in the hospital was "a nightmare."

"I was saying to myself, 'It's serious but he's going to survive, he's been gored, but nowadays no-one dies from being gored, there'll be a solution," she explained. "I thought he'd been gored in his right side and not in his heart. They tried to revive him but the time of death was recorded at 8.25pm.

"We were waiting for half an hour. Someone told me it wasn't that serious, that they were operating on him. I was in the street walking from side to side. Until I saw his dad shouting and mine came out crying. And I still cannot grasp what happened after that.

"Nowadays no-one dies in a bullring anymore so why does it have to happen to us. I haven't stopped asking myself why but a friend has told me not to question things and it's true, it's only going to hurt me. I'm in a cloud. I think that Victor is out in the countryside and that he's going to return at any minute."

Barrio's wife said that being a matador was "his dream and his life." She also revealed that after nine years together the couple who were due to celebrate their second wedding anniversary on 11 October were planning to start a family in September, Mail Online reports.

The matador had delayed having a child as he focused on his career. She explained: "Victor once showed me a sketch by a bullfighting doctor called Victoriano de la Serna, published in an old paper, in which he is approaching the bull in his matador's outfit and two children are pulling at his jacket. It symbolised the fact that children don't help you when it comes to bullfighting, so I didn't insist.

"Victor's situation was very unstable and I'm maybe a bit too responsible. We definitely wanted to have children and what hurts the most is not having started a family with him and enjoyed having one.

"I don't even want to think about it. But he was three years younger than me. There was no rush. We were always putting it off. But in September I was going to tell him 'yes' for sure. I hadn't spoken with him about it but I was going to tell him 'yes, let's go for it.' The only consolation I have is that God wanted it this way."

Sanz responded with anger at the negative reaction on social media after opponents of the blood sport posted offensive tweets 'celebrating' the matador's death. "A matador has died. One torturer less. Today the planet has got a little less s**t in it," said one commentator adding: "If all bullfights ended like Victor Barrio's, more than one of us would go and see them."

Barrio's grieving widow told Spanish daily El Mundo that the couple had discussed the negativity surrounding the blood sport . "We were seeing the reactions of the bullfighting opponents when someone was gored and I told him that if some day he was injured in hospital, I would go to a lawyer with each tweet, each comment, to finish with each one of them in whatever way possible.

"The law is there to be obeyed," she added. "And if we can do something we're going to do it. All because Victor asked me to do so a while back, one day on this sofa where we are now."

She slammed those posting insulting messages about her husband stating : "What these beings say, because I struggle to call them humans, doesn't hurt me, it makes me feel pity."

A bullfighting foundation has pledged to record the offensive tweets and report their authors to police.

Sanz told La Razon that despite the backlash, she had received messages of support from people all over the world. Condolences were expressed by King Felipe VI of Spain and acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy Brey. Yesterday the matador's home town of Sepulveda, 140 miles north-west of Madrid, was closed for two days of public mourning.

Hundreds of people lined the streets of Sepulveda on Monday to pay their respects to Barrio as his jewel-encrusted coffin was carried into a church. His death has prompted calls for a worldwide ban on bullfighting.