Last stand for escaped bulls

After a four-day operation involving 40 gendarmes, firemen and a helicopter, four competition bulls remain at large in the Carmargue.

Police believe the 200kg animals were deliberately set free from their enclosure.

They had been raised for the course camarguaises - a bullfighting competition which does not involve harm to the animals.

Tourists and residents had been advised not to approach the bulls which dispersed around the communes of Eyrargues, Maillane and Saint-Rémy-de-Provence.

Several have already been caught by lasso or tranquilizers. The remaining bulls are hiding among tall sunflowers making it difficult for them to be caught.

While the assistant prefect of the Bouches-du-Rhône, Jacques Simmonet, had issued an order for any remaining bulls to be shot, he said that the four remaining had been spotted and would not be killed.

Photo: A Carmargue bull