Hundreds of men and topless women lay down in front of the Las Ventas bullring in Madrid today with their bodies covered in artificial blood and with two darts sticking out of their backs to protest at Spain's continued acceptance of bull running and bullfighting.

Rafael Boro, spokesperson for the protest organisers 'Equanimal' said that 'abolishing bullfighting is everyone's responsibility' and explained that the protestors were 'putting themselves in the bulls' position'.

Equanimal's spokesperson claimed that bullfighting is only able to continue in Spain 'because of all the grants it gets' and maintained that there is no support for bull running amongst the young people in this country.

Boro was also protesting publicly about the 18,000€ fine slapped on the organisation by the Comunidad de Madrid last year for storming the bullring.