diff --git a/podman/domain/containers_run.py b/podman/domain/containers_run.py
index 7ab60f97..fee4d45d 100644
--- a/podman/domain/containers_run.py
+++ b/podman/domain/containers_run.py
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
 
 from podman.domain.containers import Container
 from podman.domain.images import Image
-from podman.errors import ContainerError, ImageNotFound
+from podman.errors import APIError, ContainerError, ImageNotFound
 
 logger = logging.getLogger("podman.containers")
 
@@ -72,9 +72,19 @@ def run(
         if isinstance(command, str):
             command = [command]
 
+        _needs_pull = False
         try:
             container = self.create(image=image_id, command=command, **kwargs)  # type: ignore[attr-defined]
         except ImageNotFound:
+            _needs_pull = True
+        except APIError as e:
+            # Podman may return HTTP 500 with "image not known" instead of 404
+            # when an image is missing locally; re-raise any unrelated API errors.
+            if "image not known" not in str(e):
+                raise
+            _needs_pull = True
+
+        if _needs_pull:
             self.podman_client.images.pull(  # type: ignore[attr-defined]
                 image_id,
                 auth_config=kwargs.get("auth_config"),
diff --git a/podman/tests/unit/test_containersmanager.py b/podman/tests/unit/test_containersmanager.py
index 92f58896..01083adc 100644
--- a/podman/tests/unit/test_containersmanager.py
+++ b/podman/tests/unit/test_containersmanager.py
@@ -644,6 +644,50 @@ def test_run(self, mock):
                 self.assertEqual(next(actual), b"This is a unittest - line 1")
                 self.assertEqual(next(actual), b"This is a unittest - line 2")
 
+    @requests_mock.Mocker()
+    def test_run_pulls_image_on_api_error_image_not_known(self, mock):
+        """run() should pull image and retry when Podman returns 500 'image not known'."""
+        image_id = "sha256:aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa"
+        image_id_encoded = image_id.replace(":", "%3A")
+        container_id = FIRST_CONTAINER["Id"]
+
+        mock.post(
+            tests.LIBPOD_URL + "/containers/create",
+            [
+                {
+                    "status_code": 500,
+                    "json": {"cause": "image not known", "message": "fedora: image not known"},
+                },
+                {
+                    "status_code": 201,
+                    "json": {"Id": container_id, "Warnings": []},
+                },
+            ],
+        )
+        mock.post(
+            tests.LIBPOD_URL + "/images/pull",
+            json={"error": "", "id": image_id, "images": [image_id], "stream": ""},
+        )
+        mock.get(
+            tests.LIBPOD_URL + f"/images/{image_id_encoded}/json",
+            json={"Id": image_id},
+        )
+        mock.post(
+            tests.LIBPOD_URL + f"/containers/{container_id}/start",
+            status_code=204,
+        )
+        mock.get(
+            tests.LIBPOD_URL + f"/containers/{container_id}/json",
+            json=FIRST_CONTAINER,
+        )
+
+        with patch.multiple(Container, logs=DEFAULT, wait=DEFAULT, autospec=True) as mock_container:
+            mock_container["wait"].return_value = 0
+            mock_container["logs"].return_value = iter([b"output"])
+
+            actual = self.client.containers.run("fedora", "/usr/bin/ls")
+            self.assertIsInstance(actual, bytes)
+
     @requests_mock.Mocker()
     def test_create_all_healthcheck_parameters(self, mock):
         """Test that all healthcheck parameters are correctly passed to the API."""