Authorities are searching for a woman who police said stabbed a Stadium-Armory station manager. (Metro Transit Police Department )

Metro Transit police are searching for a woman who they say stabbed a station manager at Stadium-Armory with a kitchen knife Sunday because he wouldn’t let her through the fare gate without paying, authorities said.

Dan Stessel, a Metro spokesman, said the unidentified woman stabbed the manager around 11:45 a.m. Sunday.

She walked into the station’s 19th and C streets SE entrance and asked the station manager if she could walk in without a farecard. When the manager said no, she spit on him, Stessel said.

Authorities said the woman began fighting with the manager and at some point stabbed him with a steak knife. She left the station after the assault.

Metro police recovered the handle of the knife at the Stadium-Armory station, but Stessel said its blade broke off in the victim.

Stessel said the manager, who has been a Metro employee for 18 years, was transported to an area hospital, where he was in stable condition Sunday evening.

“We are very relieved to hear that the station manager is going to be okay,” Stessel said.

Anyone with information about the stabbing or the woman’s whereabouts can call Metro Transit Police Department detectives at 202-962-2121 or text a tip to “MyMTPD.”