Despite being conscious as he was carried out of the arena, Fandiño was bleeding heavily. Witnesses later reported his final words: “Hurry up, I’m dying.” He suffered a fatal heart attack en route to the hospital.

Fellow matador Juan del Álamo, who went on to kill the bull, expressed disbelief at the turn of events: “I can’t believe it. None of us understand how it could have happened; it was all so fast. The bull knocked him down with its hindquarters and he fell face down.”

Fandiño had faced serious injuries in the past. In 2014, he was knocked unconscious in the ring in Bayonne, France, and in 2015, he was tossed into the air during a fight in Pamplona, Spain. Still, his death shocked the bullfighting world, marking the first time a matador had died in France in nearly a century. The last was Isidoro Mari Fernando, who died in Béziers in 1921, according to Sud-Ouest, a French regional newspaper.

In Spain, tributes poured in following Fandiño’s death, including one from King Felipe VI, who honoured him as a “great bullfighting figure.” Then-Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy also paid respects.

Fandiño’s death came less than a year after another high-profile fatality in the bullring: Spanish matador Víctor Barrio, who was gored to death during a televised event — the first matador to die in Spain in three decades.

Bullfighting remains a highly controversial tradition. Though banned in some regions, it was declared legal in France in 2012, with courts ruling it part of the country’s local cultural heritage. Spain, too, continues to protect the practice, despite growing calls from animal rights advocates for a total ban.