On July 22, 1981, Gao Haiping, together with a girl who had dumped him previously, wanted to visit a film screening at the San Kuang Club (三矿俱乐部) in Yangquan, an institution with a total of 2056 seats run by the Bureau of Mining Affairs (矿务局).
There he intended to kill them both with a bomb made of about 3 kg of ammonium nitrate with an electric detonator contained in a metal box.
Within 15 minutes, one thousand police officers arrived at the scene to maintain order and start an investigation into the crime.
Gao was soon identified by a former classmate, who was also attending the screening, and blood tests, as well as the identification of the remains of his clothes by his mother, confirmed him as the culprit of the explosion.
Also, a suicide note and letters to his parents were found in a drawer in his home, as well as explosives wrapped in paper.