Three teenage high school football players have been charged with raping a 14-year-old girl at gunpoint after leaving a fair in York, Pennsylvania.

The terrified victim allegedly had a gun put to her head before her attackers took turns holding her down and raping her in a resident's backyard.

Police say the 16-year-old suspects – named as Kelvin J. Mercedes, Andrew R. Miller, and Daishon M. Richardson – were arrested on Tuesday (21 November).

All three boys were members of the Central York High School football team and have been charged as adults.

The victim told officers she had been with friends at the York Fair on 16 September when the boys started to follow her, The York Daily Record reported.

She said after she left the fair the boys asked her to come with them, saying they wanted to show her something.

Sometime between 9.30pm and 11pm, she was then allegedly taken to a business parking lot across from a West York school athletic field, where Mercedes put a gun to her head and told her to get on her knees.

In fear of her life, police say she was "forced to perform oral sex on three males" before then being taken to a nearby resident's backyard, where she was sexually assaulted again by the boys.

The victim said she was eventually bundled into a maroon SUV and driven back to the fairground. She returned home, told a relative what happened and was taken to hospital where staff contacted police.

The girl said after the attack she received a text picture from Miller showing him holding the gun used to threaten her. Other texts included messages from the boys telling her she was beautiful and to stop lying, court documents say.

West York police say two of the boys were picked up without incident on Tuesday (21 November) and the third arranged to surrender.

The three boys have been charged with rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, unlawful restraint and terroristic threats. They have each posted $25,000 bail and were released on Wednesday night.

A preliminary hearing is scheduled for 11 January.

Relatives of the accused declined to comment.

The school district says what happened was "a non-school related issue" and that it has no comment on the police investigation.