One man was stabbed to death and a second was seriously wounded in Loudoun County on Friday evening in an attack that County Sheriff Mike Chapman said “may have gang implications.”

The stabbings occurred about 6 p.m. in the Ashburn area in a wooded tract near Whitford Square and the Ashburn Meadows apartment development.

The first sign of trouble was when the wounded man came out of the woods, Chapman said. He was flown to a hospital and was expected to survive.

Deputies followed a trail of blood to where the other man was lying dead in a creek. Chapman said he also had been stabbed.

The men, and apparently others, had gathered in the wooded area for relaxation, Chapman said.

He said investigators thought both men were attacked “by people known to them.”

Investigators were in the process of identifying suspects, Chapman said.