UPDATED 4.10PM: An award-winning bullfighter has been gored to death live in front of hundreds of terrified spectators - the first matador fatality in Spain this century.

Segovia bullfighter Víctor Barrio, 29, suffered a mortal blow during a tournament in the town of Teruel in Aragon, Eastern Spain.

The performer was rushed to hospital unconscious but doctors were unable to save his life.

The horrific goring was shown live on TV, and shocked viewers have uploaded footage of the scene on social media.

Worldwide, the last matador death was in 1987.

Another Spaniard has died and two other men, including a Japanese, have been gored in bull-runs in Spain, as the San Fermin festival in the northern town of Pamplona entered its third day.

The 28-year-old died after a bull's horn pierced his lung and heart during a run in the southeastern village of Pedreguer near Valencia, a spokesman for the regional government said on Saturday.

The bull caught him as he was trying to help another runner in the annual event, in which a man also died last year.

Many Spanish towns hold summer festivals involving bulls.

San Fermin, in which bulls chase red-scarved runners through Pamplona's cobbled streets during nine days of events, is the most famous and attracts thousands of revellers from Spain and overseas.

In Saturday's run there, a 33-year-old Japanese man was gored in the chest and a 24-year-old Spanish man in the arm, while 12 others suffered minor injuries, the local government said on its website.

The Japanese man was in a stable condition in hospital, a spokesman for the festival said.

The four-minute run in Pamplona featured six bulls from the Jose Escolar ranch, one of which separated from the rest and caused panic among the runners.

The daily bull-run along an 825-metre stretch of narrow streets in Pamplona's old town starts at 8am and usually lasts between three and five minutes. There are eight runs in total during the festival.

Over the past century 15 people have died in Pamplona's event, which dates back hundreds of years, according to a count on the unofficial San Fermin website. The last death was recorded in 2009.