A suspect is in custody after five young people - four males and one female 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.

Five people - four males and one female - are dead after a house party in Calgary's northwest. A neighbour says the university-aged people had a BBQ earlier in the day to celebrate the last day of classes.

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

Bermuda Shorts Day festivities to mark the end of the University of Calgary's winter semester have been a campus tradition since 1960.

Three victims were pronounced dead at the scene while two others who were taken to hospital in critical, life-threatening condition, and later died, officials said. Four of those who died were male and one was female, officials said.

The three bodies in the house were taken away by officials from the medical examiner's office around mid-morning.

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 suspect was taken to hospital to be treated for a dog bite, police said.

The homicide unit is leading the investigation with assistance from the forensics team as a heavy police presence remained in the neighbourhood Tuesday.

Nearby resident Doug Jones told CBC News he noticed about 12 to 20 university-aged people 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. "We've never had any problems over there."