AN award-winning bullfighter has been gored to death live in front of hundreds of terrified spectators, including his wife — the first matador fatality in Spain since the turn of the century.

    Segovia bullfighter Víctor Barrio, 29, suffered a mortal blow during his performance screened on television, in the town of Teruel in Aragon, Eastern Spain.

    His shocked wife, Raquel Sanz, was among the audience and witnessed the tragedy, while Barrio’s fellow matadors rushed to try to help him.

    Sanz, who married Barrio in 2014, was said to be “devastated” as she saw her husband lying motionless on the ground, according to El Espanol.

    The matador was taken to hospital unconscious but doctors could not do “anything” to resuscitate him and save his life.

    He rolled to the ground in a painful somersault after the beast caught him while he tried to deflect it with “muletazo” manoeuvre, reports LaRazon.es.

    In a tragedy that rocked the bullfighting world Saturday, the third bull of the day snagged him in the side, rammed him to the ground and gored him on the chest.

    The Los Manos bred bull, named Lorenzo, had reportedly been struggling but caught the showman off guard after a gust of wind affected his waving of the crutch.

    The matador met his match at the annual festival named Feria del ángel, reports El Mundo.

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

    After going into cardiac arrest in the hospital there was no hope for Barrio, who died of a fatal goring with a perforation of the lung and thoracic aorta.

    In his final tweet July 4, Barrio posted a picture of him in training, writing: “With the mind set on Teruel.”

    During bullfights the matador takes the lead role in killing the animal, usually clad in the opulent red and gold “traje de luces” (suit of lights).

    Now the lineage of Lorenzo the bull is set to end. As tradition dictates, the rancher will send his mother cow to the slaughterhouse, reports Cultura.

    Although deaths from Spain’s famous bull runs are relatively common, with up to around 10 deaths recorded each year, worldwide the last matador death was in 1985.

    In that incident Columbia’s Jose Eslava Caceres was trapped against the boards before his lungs were pierced by the bull’s horns.

    The last matador deaths in Spain were Francisco Rivera Paquirri in Córdoba, 1984, and Jose Cubero Yiyo in Madrid, 1985.

    Two bandilleros, Manolo Montoliú and Ramon Soto Vargas, who plant little flags with barbed points in the top of the bull’s shoulders, were also killed in the ring in 1992. (SD-Agencies)