A night of celebration at Lisbon's historic Campo Pequeno bullring turned to tragedy when 22-year-old forcado Manuel Maria Trindade was fatally gored and hurled against the wall by a 1,500lbs bull in front of a horrified crowd.
The young bullfighter, following in his father's footsteps as part of the São Manços troupe, attempted a traditional pega de cara (grabbing the bull by the horns) when the enraged animal lifted him high and smashed him into the wooden barrier.
Paramedics treated him inside the ring before he was rushed to São José Hospital and placed in an induced coma. However, he succumbed within 24 hours on August 23, following catastrophic head trauma and cardiorespiratory arrest.
Then, the tragedy deepened as 73-year-old Vasco Morais Batista, a surgeon watching from a box, also collapsed amid the chaos. He was later pronounced dead from an aortic aneurysm at Santa Maria Hospital. Hours later, the tragic moment went viral online.
Portuguese bullfighting, unlike its Spanish counterpart, spares animals from execution inside the arena, yet the tradition remains a perilous rite, where unarmed forcados face the beasts with nothing but their bodies. For Trindade, it was both inheritance and passion.
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