OTTAWA: Five students died overnight in a stabbing rampage at a house party marking the end of university classes in the Canadian city of Calgary, authorities said on Tuesday.

Police said they were called at approximately 1:20 am (0720 GMT) to a home in a quiet suburban neighbourhood where paramedics found three people dead. Two more died in hospital.

They had been “attending a house party,” said a police statement.

The victims were four men and one woman in their late teens or 20s.

A suspect was arrested nearby after what public broadcaster CBC said was a chase involving police dogs.

“Thoughts and prayers of all Calgarians are with the young people we lost this morning, their families, friends, and university community,” Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi wrote on Twitter.

The University of Calgary said the victims were its students.

It said it was “greatly concerned about students, faculty and staff affected by this tragedy” and offered them support.

Neighbour Doug Jones told CBC he was “shocked.”

He said a porch accessible from his bedroom overlooks the yard of the home where the stabbings took place, and “we never heard a thing.”

He described the area as “one of them old fashioned neighborhoods (where) nothing ever happens.”