The targets were a group of four civil guards who were returning from policing a football game involving Arenas Club de Getxo.
After the game had finished, the civil guards were returning to their barracks, walking along Maximo Aguirre Street in the town.
[1] Four ETA members, armed with machine guns and shotguns, who had been lying in wait behind the wall of the local Telefónica building, ambushed the civil guards, subjecting them to heavy gunfire before fleeing.
Two of the civil guards were killed instantly, while the other two were seriously injured, with one of them dying in hospital four days later.
[2][3] The ETA members involved escaped in two cars, driven by a further two participants in the attack.