The man’s family were watching in the crowd as he chanced his luck in the annual Fiesta del Toro Revolao bull run in the small village of Valfermoso de Tajuna, Guadalajara, in the Castilla La Mancha region of Spain.
This gruesome video shows how the bull runs loose in the local square, with one man avoiding serious injury after he leapfrogs over the rampaging animal.
But another of the runners, the man from Madrid, is not so lucky as he waves his jumper to enrage the bull which eventually charges at him and digs its horn deep into his neck, piercing his jugular vein.
The video, posted on the social networks, shows other members of the crowd pulling the bull’s horns in a bid to get him away from the stricken man.
According to the local Spanish TV channel, the man’s wife, sons and brother-in-law were in the crowd.
Event organisers rushed to the scene in an old van which was also battered by the bull before the injured runner was put on board.
The emergency services tried to save him before he was rushed to hospital in a critical condition but died within minutes.
The victim was born in Madrid but lived in Cienpozuelos, said the Mayor of Valfermoso de Tajuña, Daniel García Rojo.
“It was pure bad luck, we are very dismayed,” he said.
“Nothing like this has happened before and we are so shocked. He just didn’t have time to protect himself.”
The village only has a small population of around 100 but the bull-running festival is considered a great historic tradition and attracts visitors from all parts of Spain. There have been no previous deaths.
The Fiesta del Toro Revolao is a bull-running challenge in which competitors have to entice the bull and then avoid it, either by running or performing acrobats to get out of its path.
Two other men were injured during the same festival, one of them in the thigh. He underwent emergency surgery for a 20cm wound.