Right-wing extremist groups in Spain are using the murder of an 11-year-old boy to stoke anti-immigration tensions.

Following an incident that bears similarities to the recent murders in Southport, UK, police have launched a manhunt for an unknown knifeman who stabbed the child to death on Sunday.

The far-right Falange party immediately tried to link the murder to Spain’s high immigration rate. Falange is a continuation of the fascist organization founded in the 1930s that later formed the political structure of Francisco Franco’s dictatorship. It is largely marginalized in modern Spain.

The victim, whose name is given only as Mateo, was playing football at a sports complex in the village of Mocejon, near Toledo, when a masked man stormed onto the field and stabbed him multiple times, causing the victim’s almost instant death.

The killer escaped and his whereabouts were still unknown on Monday.

On Sunday, online agitators drew attention to the fact that 50 underage immigrants were being housed in a hotel in Mocejon. In response to the murder, the Falange party posted on X, formerly Twitter: “Massive, uncontrolled and illegal immigration has brought total insecurity to the streets of our cities, where attacks and murders occur almost daily.”

Family asks for calm

A cousin of the 11-year-old spoke to the media on Sunday, expressing the family’s pain over what he described as an “atrocity” and asking for calm regarding the identity of the killer.

“No one should be accused because of their race or the color of their skin,” said Asell Sanchez.

Guardia Civil sources believe the suspect is a young man, possibly a teenager.

According to reports, the killer approached three boys, including Mateo, who were playing on a soccer field around 10 a.m. on Sunday. The other two children managed to escape.

The murderer is said to have climbed over a fence rather than entering and leaving the sports center through the main entrance. He reportedly fled the crime scene through an olive grove.

Santiago Abascal, leader of the far-right Vox, Spain’s third-largest party, did not draw a specific link between the murder and immigration, but his official statement on the attack suggested a new threat to Spanish society, although there is no information on the identity of the suspect.

“They are turning Spain into a country that is unrecognizable and dangerous for all generations, from the youngest to the oldest,” said Abascal.

Child migrants

Vox and other right-wing organizations criticize the policy of transferring unaccompanied minor immigrants to regions on the Spanish mainland due to overcrowding in the centers on the Canary Islands.

In the Canary Islands, newly arrived child migrants are being housed in tents, but authorities say there is not enough capacity to accommodate the large numbers. Of the 1,200 people who arrived in small boats in August, 200 were minors.

The islands’ authorities are caring for more than 5,200 minors and say that despite talks with the Spanish government about distributing them across the country, only 65 of them have been brought to the mainland.

Last month, Vox severed its coalition ties and parliamentary support for the conservative Popular Party (PP)-led governments in six Spanish regions after the PP agreed to work with the left-leaning Spanish government on a plan to house child migrants across the country.

Three weeks ago, Britain was rocked by a wave of right-wing extremist unrest after a suspected child murderer in Southport was falsely identified as a Muslim refugee in social media posts.