Horrified spectators watched as an award-winning bullfighter was gored to death in a tournament on Saturday (9 July). Segovia bullfighter Víctor Barrio, 29, was mauled by the 87 stone animal during the Feria del Ángel festival, in the town of Teruel in Aragon, Eastern Spain.

In shocking scenes, screened live on local TV, audiences watched as the matador is caught by The Los Maños bred bull . The animal rammed him to the ground and fatally gored him in the chest, reports El Mundo.

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Barrio was carried out of the arena unconscious and rushed to hospital, but doctors were unable to save him. His death was confirmed on the website of Madrid's Las Ventas bullring, where Barrio began as an apprentice bullfighter in 2010.

In his last tweet posted on July 4, the professional bullfighter posted a picture of himself in training in anticipation of the festival, writing: "With the mind set on Teruel."

Despite becoming a bullfighter late in his career, he won several awards and was named the winner of San Isidro bullfight by the Senior Club of Madrid. His death marks the first matador fatality in Spain in twenty years according to Mail Online . The last matador death was in 1987 when Colombian bullfighter Jose Eslava Caceres was trapped against the boards and suffered a deadly blow that pierced his lungs.

Víctor Barrio
Victor Barrio is pictured during his final bullfight @OnlineMagazin/ Twitter

Animal rights groups such as PETA have called for a ban on bull-fighting in Spain, in which the animals are subjected to an inhumane ordeal which in most cases culminates in their slow, torturous death. Only on rare occasions do the bulls survive.

Earlier, it was reported that a man participating in a village bull run in Alicante had died, while six men were gored at the Pamplona festival.

The festival has been suspended in the wake of the death of Barrio. Víctor Barrio was trending as the public reacted to his death.

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