FARMINGTON — A rodeo bull that ran loose at the Dakota County Fair injured several people, including a woman who was airlifted to a hospital and a sheriff’s deputy who shot the beast before he was trampled.

Dakota County Sheriff David Bellows said the bull escaped its pen Wednesday around 8:15 p.m. A witness who said the bull charged a sheriff’s deputy who had chased the animal after it escaped. The witness said the officer fired two shots at the beast before it ran him over.

Bellows said the deputy was among about eight people hurt, though only one woman needed hospitalization. Her condition was not known.

Bellows also said the bull was shot, but the animal’s condition wasn’t known.