Met says knife crime down as ninth teen dies

LONDON (Reuters) - Police launched a murder investigation on Friday after a 19-year-old man was stabbed to death in Stoke Newington, north London.

He is the 12th teenager to be murdered in the capital this year and the ninth to be stabbed to death, Scotland Yard said.

That compares with 22 fatal stabbings and 29 teenage homicides through 2008 including shootings and deaths from other injuries, it said.

Police said the teenager, whom they have identified, was discovered in the road late on Thursday night. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

"The victim was stabbed following an altercation with two male suspects," Detective Inspector John Macdonald said in a statement.

The Metropolitan police said officers had made progress in tackling knife crime and youth violence across the capital after a slew of high-profile attacks last year.

The last teenager to be killed in London was Carl Beatson Asiedu, 19, who was stabbed to death in Kennington in August.

Through "Operation Blunt 2," Scotland Yard said it had stepped up stop and search operations to identify youths carrying weapons.

A spokesman for the Metropolitan police said that, according to its latest statistics, the number of crimes recorded where knives had been used in the capital had fallen 4.8 percent in the five months to October.

(Reporting by Stefano Ambrogi; Editing by Steve Addison)