Huge manhunt after 11-year-old boy is stabbed to death on football pitch in Spain

Mateo, an 11-year-old boy, was stabbed to death on Sunday by a young man on a football pitch at the Ángel Tardío sports centre in Mocejón (Toledo) in central Spain.

The incident happened at around 10 am when the child was playing football with other youngsters. Suddenly, a man burst into the sports facilities with his face covered with a handkerchief and brandishing a knife and went onto the football pitch.

The children ran away but one of them was hit by the attacker and stabbed. According to sources consulted by SUR's sister newspaper ABC , the boy received at least 11 stab wounds, three of them in the chest. The man then fled the sports centre in an old grey Ford Mondeo. An air ambulance was sent to the sports centre and medical teams were sent with a mobile intensive care unit but they could only certify the death of the boy. The victim's relatives also rushed to the sports facilities and were informed of the fatal outcome.

At the same time, the Guardia Civil, supported by the National Police force, set up a massive search operation - which included a helicopter - to locate and arrest the perpetrator of this fatal stabbing, who may be mentally disturbed. The operation is still ongoing. According to sources, he is a young man of about 18 years of age. In an effort to find him, police are studying the recordings of the security cameras installed in different parts of the town, some of them in the vicinity of the sports ground where a friendly football match was due to be played on Sunday between the local team and the Fuenlabrada reserve team, a match that was ultimately suspended.

The tragic event has shocked the town of Mocejón, with a population of 5,000, which is very close to the city of Toledo, where the family of the murdered child is well known as they have been running a bakery for years. As a result of the events, Mocejón town hall decreed three days of official mourning and on Sunday afternoon called a public gathering which will be joined by another this Monday at the doors of the provincial authority, an institution governed by the mayor of Mocejón, Concepción Cedillo, "to show all our support for the family and loved ones of the victim because we are shocked by what has happened and the pain felt by the family is unimaginable".

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A spokesperson for the family, Asell Sánchez, Mateo's cousin, explained to the media gathered at the sports centre that the deceased boy was "super good and affectionate" and that his tragic end "we cannot take it in because we don't even know where we are at". "One of the friends he was playing football with called for help saying that his best friend had been killed," he added.

The Toledo Court of Instruction number 3 has taken charge of the case and has decreed the secrecy of summary proceedings.