Young Spanish taxi driver shot dead in Basque Country town centre

The incident happened at around 8pm, in a very busy part of the town.

It appears that the vehicle the deceased was driving, a black Mercedes taxi, was struck from behind by another car.

The shooting took place when both the victim and the perpetrator got out of their cars. According to witnesses, the suspect fired at least five shots at the victim, one of which struck him in the head.

The regional police set up an operation involving checkpoints in Azpeitia and the surrounding area, with the aim of locating the suspect. He is believed to have got back into the vehicle he was driving, a grey Volkswagen, and fled towards the centre of Azpeitia.

Attempts by the emergency services to resuscitate the taxi driver proved unsuccessful. His body lay on the road until after midnight. There were moments of tension and distress at the scene once the victim's relatives arrived.

The young man's murder has caused a huge stir in Azpeitia. He was well known both for his work and for living in the area where the tragic incident took place.

"We can't believe something like this could happen in Azpeitia. You always hear about it and it seems to happen elsewhere. I'm in shock," a local resident told SUR.

The victim also worked as a DJ, a hobby he combined with his job as a driver. He had played at venues such as the Dabadaba in San Sebastián.

Guipúzcoa is a province that does not have a high crime rate, but in recent months there have been several incidents that have kept the police busy.

Tuesday's murder is the third to have taken place so far in 2026. The most recent homicide took place on 12 July, when 33-year-old resident of Errenteria C. A. was stabbed in Kaputxinos.

The incident took place in broad daylight on the street. The victim suffered a fatal stab wound to the chest. A few minutes earlier, he had bumped into the alleged attacker while having a coffee on the terrace of a local bar.

According to locals' accounts, C.A. was sitting at a high table on the terrace, next to the entrance to the premises, while the other man was in the passageway, which has a small window through which the bar counter can be seen and where orders can be placed. It was in that small passageway that the stabbing took place.

The Ertzaintza arrested a 23-year-old man who had left the knife at the scene.

At the end of April, the Ertzaintza discovered a body in a squatted railway area in Irun. The man, 34, had a gunshot wound to the abdomen. As SUR was able to confirm, the police found at least one bullet casing at the crime scene.

Barely 12 hours after the discovery, the Ertzaintza arrested a 29-year-old man.

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