Second bullfighter to be killed in a year

IVAN Fandino was the first matador to die in an arena in France for almost a century.

But while it is rare for bullfighters to be killed, his is the second death in just a year after 29year-old Victor Barrio was killed in Spain last July – with the two deaths in close succession fuelling the row about the spectacle.

Barrio’s death, which was broadcast live on TV, was the first during a fight in Spain for 30 years. Meanwhile the last matador fatality in France was in 1921, when Isidoro Mari Fernando died in the arena in Béziers, according to France’s Sud Ouest newspaper.

The bull is almost always killed. Bullfighting became widespread in medieval Spain, where it remains popular, with around 1,800 shows a year before a total audience of six million. It took hold in France in the 19th century.