Manhunt After Boy, 11, Stabbed to Death While Playing Football in Spain

Jetfighters fly over the Spanish capital during a military parade marking the Spanish national holiday in Madrid on Oct. 12, 2007. Pierre-Philippe Marcou/AFP via Getty Images

Police launched a manhunt after an 11-year-old boy was stabbed to death while playing football near the city of Toledo, Spain on Sunday morning.

The victim, named locally as Mateo, was playing with other children when he was attacked by a man wearing a hood, El Mundo reports.

The attack happened in Mocejón, a town of about 5,000 people around nine miles outside Toledo, in the centre of the country.

A large manhunt is now underway with the Guardia Civil saying they are searching for the suspect, reported to be a young man, and a grey Ford Mondeo.

Government sources confirmed the attack happened around 10:00 a.m., according to RTVE, and that at least a dozen police patrols and a helicopter were looking for the suspect.

Crowds gathered outside Mocejón town hall for a minute’s silence in tribute to the boy on Sunday afternoon.

The victim’s cousin, Asell Sánchez-Vincente, 39, said Mateo was playing with two friends when the killer seemed to slip through a hole in a fence, El Pais reported.

“The two friends managed to escape, Mateo did not,” he added. “It happened to him as it could have happened to anyone who was there.”

El Pais also reported Mateo’s uncle ran from nearby padel courts where he was playing a tournament when he heard of the stabbing, but could not save his nephew.

Concepción Cedillo, the mayor of the town, told reporters, “It is a sad day, with a town broken by pain, and if every murder is painful, how much more so the murder of an innocent child who was playing football with his friends this morning.”

The boy and his family were reportedly well known in Mocejón, where they run a popular bakery, according to El Pais. Three days of official mourning have been declared in the town.

Milagros Tolon, the Spanish government’s representative in the Castilla-La Mancha region, posted on social media platform X: “It is with great sadness that I receive the news of the murder of a minor in #Mocejón (Toledo) after being attacked with a sharp object. The Guardia Civil has deployed a wide-ranging operation to arrest the perpetrator.”

“All my love to the family and friends of the deceased, as well as to the people of Mocejón,” she added.

Emiliano Garcia-Page, president of the Castilla-La Mancha region, said he was shocked by the events in Mocejón and hoped the man responsible would be found quickly.

“These situations are unacceptable and must result in a just punishment.”