Police in Spain are searching for a man suspected of stabbing an 11-year-old boy to death on a football pitch.
The murder took place at around 9:45 a.m. on Sunday at the Ángel Tardío sports centre in the town of Mocejón in central Spain. Witnesses say a man with his face covered with a scarf and armed with a sharp object charged at several people, who fled. The assailant then attacked the boy, who fell mortally wounded on the side of the pitch.
Very little information has emerged about the suspect, whose face was covered, but he is believed to be around 18 years old. Police said on Monday he was wearing a white t-shirt and shorts and had dark hair. Security forces also told Spanish newspaper ABC that he fled in an old grey Ford Mondeo.
He is also believed to have entered the pitch through a gap in the fence, which makes neighbours suspect that he knew the place.
The attack in the small town 65km south of Madrid has shocked Spain. Political leaders have denounced the murder, while the Civil Guard has launched a huge manhunt for the suspect.
Mocejón mayor Concepción Cedillo said on Sunday: “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.”
Emiliano Garcia-Page, president of the Castilla-La Mancha region, said on X: “I express my condolences and my sympathy to the family of the child and also the hope that the perpetrator of the events is found soon and brought to justice as soon as possible.
“These situations are unacceptable and must result in a just punishment.”
Alberto Núñez Feijóo, leader of Spain’s opposition centre-right Partido Popular, said he was “shocked by the fatal stabbing of an eleven-year-old boy in the province of Toledo.”
“All my solidarity with the family, and my support to the [Civil Guard] so that they find the author of this savagery and that the full weight of the law falls upon him.” he wrote on X.
Meanwhile, Vox leader Santiago Abascal said: “They are turning Spain into an unrecognisable and dangerous country for all generations without distinction, whether they are the youngest or our elders.
“There is no sufficient punishment in the penal code for such a heinous criminal. And there is nothing that can make up for the terrible loss of his family and loved ones.
“I pray for them.”
