A suspect is in custody after five people, all youths in their teens to 20s, died following early-morning stabbings in northwest Calgary.

The stabbings happened around 1:20 a.m. MT on Tuesday at an address in the 100 block of Butler Crescent N.W., police said.

According to neighbours, the youths had been celebrating the last day of university classes with a fire in a home's backyard.

Three males were pronounced dead at the scene while two others who were taken to hospital in critical, life-threatening condition, and later died, officials said.

One other person suffered minor injuries.

All those who died were in their late teens to early 20s, police said.

The suspect fled on foot but police arrested him about 40 minutes later with assistance from the K-9 unit. Investigators are not looking for any more suspects.

The homicide unit is investigating.

Nearby resident Doug Jones told CBC News he noticed about 12 to 20 university-aged youths at the backyard party.

“When it started to get dark, they moved inside and once inside, you wouldn’t even be able to tell there was anything really even going on. It wasn’t loud at all,” he said.

