It has been widely reported that the Nationalists sacked Badajoz and killed thousands of prisoners and civilians, culminating in an infamous round of executions in the town's bull ring, where machine-guns were set up on the barriers around the ring. The screams of the dying could be heard many streets away. Murder and mass rape flared unchecked for several days, and Yagüe's failure to call a halt to the killings earned him the nickname, "The Butcher of Badajoz". Foreign correspondents, depending on their political sympathies, reported between an estimated 1,800 and 4,000 civilian deaths.