 Upon the entrance of the troops, the Republican militiamen withdrew; forty of them holed up in the Tower of the Parish of the Purification ("Torre de la Parroquia de la Purificación"), whose profile dominates the surrounding countryside.Military staff then decided to set fire to the parish and shell the tower with a cannon installed in the Fuente La Negra, in order to force the Republicans to surrender.Roughly 1,000 civilians were killed.