Sacrificial beasts turn on their slayers

ISTANBUL - More than 1600 people injured themselves or were injured by rampant beasts and two died of heart attacks as they were sacrificing livestock for the Eid al-Adha festival.

Turkey's streets annually run with blood as sheep and cattle have their throats cut on public pavements to remember Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son for God.

Three people suffered heart attacks and two of them died while carrying out sacrifices, state-run Anatolian news agency said, and 1664 were taken to hospital, mostly from cuts suffered while trying to hold down struggling beasts.

Television showed a number of bulls escaping the knife and running down the streets. One butted open the door of a corner shop and took refuge inside. Bulls in at least two places attacked their would-be killers and put them in hospital.

But one man in the western province of Bolu solved the problem of how to catch an escaped bull by shooting it in the legs with a shot-gun and then cutting its throat.

A portion of the meat from the dead animals is distributed to the poor. The scenes are decried by the secular media which every year calls for an end to the public slaughter.

- REUTERS