Tottenham Hotspur striker Jermain Defoe is distraught after discovering that his cousin Allan Edgar was stabbed to death in St Lucia.

Edgar is believed to have been attacked during a robbery in the Caribbean island, suffering stab wounds to his neck.

"I am shocked and saddened by the tragic news of my cousin's murder in the close-knit town which my family is from in St Lucia," The Mirror quotes Defoe as saying.

"I want to again highlight the desperate need for us to pull together - the world over - to tackle knife crime and teach everyone how sacred a life is."

The death of the striker's cousin, who is understood to be in his seventies, is the second tragedy to hit the Defoe family in under three years following the murder of the frontman's half-brother Jade in 2009.