Bull escapes its pen, runs into crowd watching rodeo at Florida fairgrounds

A raging bull at a rodeo escaped into the crowd’s sitting section and caused panic recently at the Florida State Fairgrounds in Tampa, although no one was injured.

On Saturday, before its scheduled run, a bull at the Gus Trent Rodeo “bucked off one of the side panels of the gate, and was able to run loose,” witness Christopher Thornton, who shot video of the incident, told WFLA-TV, a Tampa NBC affiliate.

From there, the bull scaled a partition, allowing it to run into the crowd of onlookers, the station reported.

Guests immediately began panicking and trying to escape the bull, announcements over the loudspeaker having little effect in calming the throng.

“Everyone was rushing, the parents were grabbing their kids. People were jumping over the chairs… I couldn’t believe this was happening at my first rodeo!” Mr. Thornton told Fox 13, a Tampa Fox affiliate.

Luckily, a Gus Trent Rodeo employee on horseback was able to lasso the bull with a rope, bringing it under control and away from the crowd.

“Everyone just started clapping. Honestly, if he wasn’t able to catch the bull, more chaos would’ve definitely happened,” Mr. Thornton told Fox 13.

FOX 13 reported it “did reach out to organizers, but they declined to comment. The Florida State Fairgrounds has not responded to a request for comment.”