By Andrew Atkinson

Spanish leading matador Enrique Ponce suffered injury when a bull gored him during a bullfight in Spain’s first bullfight since COVID-19 lockdown.

Ponce is one of the country’s leading bullfighters and performed several passes with muleta, before stabbing the bull at El Puerto de Santa Maria’s bullring.

After the bull was stabbed it turned on Ponce, flipping him up in the air with his horns – on his buttocks.

Father-of-two Ponce was imobilised and had to protect himself from the angry bull during the incident.

Spanish media said it was a scare for the matador who suffered no serious injuries after he was turned over by the bull, later killed.

The bull was Ponce’s first one in the ring on the 140th anniversary of the Real Plaza de Toros de El Puerto de Santa María.

Matador Ponce suffered serious injury when a bull tossed him into the air in 2019, suffering torn ligaments in his knee, which he had to have two operations for, and a five-inch gore injury to his buttock.  When opening the Las Fallas festival in 2014, Ponce suffered severe goring during a bullfight, breaking his collarbone and several ribs.