A 19-year-old man is in police custody and another man is recovering after he was awoken overnight in his East Vancouver home to find himself being stabbed.

Around 1:15 a.m. PT, police were called to a home on Ferndale Street near Lakewood Drive and found a man inside with a serious stab wound, said Vancouver police spokesperson Staff Sgt. Randy Fincham.

"This 27-year-old man who was sleeping at the time was woken to someone actually stabbing him, so obviously very frightening for anybody to wake up to a situation like that," Fincham said.

"[It was] a very gruesome scene when the police arrived on scene, for the roommates as well."

Police spoke with the victim and others who live inside the house and were told that the intruder wasn't known to them.

In about 45 minutes, police located a possible suspect a few blocks away in the area of East Pender Street and Garden Drive, but the 19-year-old man ran away when officers tried to speak with him, Fincham said.

Police investigate after a 27-year-old man was stabbed in his home overnight on Ferndale Street in Vancouver on March 14. (Ryan Stelting)

A K-9 unit was used to track the suspect, and he was arrested nearby a short time later.

The suspect, who suffered a minor injury, is new to Vancouver but doesn't have a significant history of crime elsewhere in Canada, Fincham said.

Possible link to nearby car break-ins

Police are still investigating to see if anything was stolen from the home of the victim, who has since been treated and released from hospital, Fincham said.

"We don't know at this point why that particular home was targeted, why this individual or these individuals possibly, were being targeted," he said.

"We have nothing to suggest at this point that the victim had anything that would draw someone to that home."

He said there were a number of reports of cars broken into in the area of Nanaimo and East Hastings in the hours before the attack and said police are not yet sure if these incidents are related.

"We're hoping there may have been someone who saw something," Fincham said.

Despite a number of violent incidents in recent months — including multiple attacks during the morning rush hour on March 2 — Fincham said incidents of stabbings are usually quite rare.

"We don't see violent incidents like this very often."