Thousands pack city for bull-running festival

Tens of thousands of cheering, champagne-soaked revellers packed the central streets and plaza of Pamplona today to kick off Spain’s most famous fiesta, the San Fermin bull-running festival.

To the cries of ‘‘Viva San Fermin!,’’ Socialist town councillor Roberto Jimenez ignited the traditional ‘‘chupinazo’’ firecracker in the city’s main square to officially start the festival, popularised by Ernest Hemingway’s 1926 novel ‘‘The Sun Also Rises.’’