UPDATED 08/03/12 9:48 a.m.

CHICAGO (CBS) — Five men were stabbed early Friday morning, in what police believe was a gang fight near Montrose and Elston avenues.

The men were stabbed around 12:55 a.m. Friday in the 4100 block of West Montrose Avenue, on the cusp of the Mayfair and Old Irving Park neighborhoods, police said.

The fight was between members of the Latin Kings and the Insane Deuces, police said, adding that a crowbar and “large knife” were used.

A 24-year-old man was stabbed multiple times in the lower back, and a 19-year-old man was stabbed multiple times in the upper right shoulder, police News Affairs Officer Hector Alfaro said. Both were taken in serious condition to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center.

A 23-year-old man was reported in stable condition with stab wounds to the abdomen, at John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County. A fourth man, 22, was also taken to Stroger in an unknown condition with stab wounds.

A fifth man, also 22, was stabbed in the leg and was reported in stable condition at Swedish Covenant Hospital.

The busy stretch of Montrose Avenue where the stabbing occurred is home to several businesses that would still have been open at the time of the incident.

Area North police detectives are investigating the stabbing.

The Sun-Times Media Wire contributed to this report.