LAWRENCE — Three friends were stabbed during a bloody brawl on Common Street early Friday morning, police said.

Officers were sent to Amesbury and Common Streets about 1:15 a.m. for a report of a man with cuts to his face and waving a gun.

Officers found a man across the street from a nightclub at Common and Amesbury streets who was bleeding from several stab wounds to the stomach.

Police called an ambulance and the man was taken to Lawrence General Hospital, where police learned two other stabbing victims were being treated.

The first man told police he and his friends had just left a nightclub and were walking down the street when they heard a man yelling and arguing.

He told police the man ran up behind him and stabbed him two or three times and he was unable to see the attacker's face.

Another of the men told police he was driving by the nightclub and saw one of his friends in a fight and stopped to help his friend.

He told police he was stabbed or slashed across the face. Hospital officials said that man was being taken to a Boston hospital for repairs to his face, but that the injuries were not life threatening.

The third victim was stabbed 14 times in the arms neck back and face, and none of the wounds were life threatening, police said.

That victim was drunk and was unable to tell police what happened.

A box cutter was recovered at the scene, police said.

The case was forwarded to the detective division for further investigation.