BUÑOL, Spain: Thousands of people gathered in the Spanish town of Buñol on August 26 for the annual La Tomatina festival, one of the world's biggest food fights. Participants threw up to 165 tons of overripe tomatoes at each other, covering the town and themselves in red pulp.

Several trucks moved slowly through the packed streets, carrying huge amounts of tomatoes. People standing in the truck beds threw tomatoes into the crowd, while those on the streets returned fire. Many participants started the event wearing white clothes but were soon covered in pink and red tomato juice.

American pop music played from loudspeakers as the crowd continued the messy celebration. At one stage, police appeared to use pepper spray to clear part of the crowd, but the festive atmosphere quickly returned.

The tomato fight lasts for more than an hour. Before the event, large tarps are placed over buildings to protect them from the tomato-filled chaos. The festival is held every year on the last Wednesday of August and dates back to a food fight in 1945.

La Tomatina later became an annual event, but Spanish dictator General Francisco Franco banned it in the 1950s. The festival returned after his rule ended. Television coverage in the 1980s helped make it popular across Spain and eventually attracted visitors from around the world.

More than 20,000 people were expected to attend this year. Spanish news agency EFE reported that around 40 percent of participants over the past three years have been tourists from outside Spain.

The festival has become especially popular among Indian tourists in recent years. Interest increased after the 2011 Indian film Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (You Only Live Once), which follows three friends traveling across Spain during an extended bachelor party. The movie featured a recreation of La Tomatina and introduced the event to a much larger Indian audience.

The film also inspired 27-year-old Mumbai resident Romail Khokhar to visit Buñol. He returned on August 25 for his third La Tomatina festival. Khokhar, who runs a clothing business, said, "I feel really great, actually. It's the best festival that I ever had, and I enjoy it a lot here."

Other tomato-throwing festivals inspired by La Tomatina have been held in places including Florida, London, Amsterdam, Sutamarchán in Colombia and Hyderabad in India.

Visitors from outside the local area pay 15 euros (US$17.50) to enter the festival. The main safety rule is that participants must squash tomatoes before throwing them. This reduces the risk of injury from whole tomatoes. Even so, many participants wear swimming goggles and earplugs to protect their eyes and ears.

After about an hour, a cannon blast signals the end of the tomato fight. Participants then use nearby communal showers to wash themselves, while workers hose down the town's streets.

The tomato stains on clothes can be difficult or impossible to remove. However, the citric acid in tomatoes can act as a natural cleaning agent, meaning the streets of Buñol can sometimes end up cleaner after the festival than before it began.