Major manhunt after 11-year-old boy stabbed on a football pitch in Spain

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

The incident occurred around 10 a.m. when the child was playing football with other teenagers. Suddenly, a man with a handkerchief over his face and a knife in his hand stormed into the sports facility and entered the football field.

The children ran away, but one of them was beaten and stabbed by the attacker. The man then fled the sports center in an old gray Ford Mondeo. A rescue helicopter was sent to the sports center and medical teams with a mobile intensive care unit were dispatched, but could only confirm the boy's death. The victim's relatives also rushed to the sports facility and were informed of the fatal outcome.

At the same time, the Guardia Civil, with the support of the National Police, launched a large-scale search operation, including the use of a helicopter, to find and arrest the perpetrator of the fatal stabbing. The perpetrator may be mentally disturbed. The operation is still ongoing. According to sources, he is a young man of around 18 years old. To find him, the police are studying the recordings of the surveillance cameras installed in different parts of the city, some of them near the sports field where a friendly match between the local team and the Fuenlabrada reserve team was to be played on Sunday, but which was eventually abandoned.

Loving and “super nice” child

The tragic event has shaken the town of Mocejón, which has a population of 5,000 and is very close to the city of Toledo, where the family of the murdered child is well known as they have run a bakery for years. As a result of the events, the Mocejón Town Hall ordered three days of official mourning and called a public meeting for Sunday afternoon, which will be followed by another next Monday in front of the doors of the Provincial Administration, an institution headed by the Mayor of Mocejón, Concepción Cedillo, “to show all our support to the family and relatives of the victim, because we are shocked by what has happened and the pain that the family feels is unimaginable.”

A family spokesman, Asell Sánchez, Mateo's cousin, told the media gathered at the sports center that the deceased boy was “super well-behaved and loving” and that his tragic end “we cannot comprehend because we do not even know where we are.” “One of the friends he played soccer with called for help and said his best friend had been killed,” he added.

The Toledo Court of Instruction Number 3 has taken over the case and ordered the summary proceedings to be kept secret.