At least two people are understood to have been stabbed in the small South Canterbury town of Temuka this evening.
A southern ambulance communications spokesman said paramedics had taken two people to hospital with stab wounds.
A third person may have been stabbed, he said.
The spokesman did not know the conditions of those injured.
"We are going back there now," the spokesman said.
Emergency services were called to Wilmhurst Rd just after 10pm.
Wilmhurst Rd resident Francis Bray said he could see police cars and people on the street outside a house about 100m away, but it was not a panicked scene.
There had been a party at a neighbouring home earlier in the evening, Bray said.
Police have taken a person into custody.