LONDON, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) -- British Home Secretary Amber Rudd called on Monday for "a different approach" to tackling the "terrible" toll of knife deaths as a 19-year-old became the fifth London teenage this year to die in a stabbing.

Rudd said "incentives" would be provided in a "different approach" to knife crime. It would see more emphasis placed on helping communities spread the anti-blade message.

The home secretary said more money would be invested in "early intervention" schemes that seek to divert young people away from carrying blades, as part of a new anti-violence strategy.

Rudd's comments come in the wake of a surge in fatal stabbings in London. In the latest tragedy, Lewis Blackman died on Sunday after clashes on a street in West London.

Rudd said each death was a "disaster and tragedy."