Updated 09/23/12 – 5:59 p.m.

CHICAGO (CBS) – Two men were stabbed and another was battered early Sunday on Division near State, outside a stretch of popular bars on the Near North Side.

Police tape was strapped across the entrances of Bootleggers and Detention night clubs at 11 W. Division and 9 W. Division. There was blood on the street on State, around the corner from the bars.

The victims were walking west on Division Street between State and Dearborn Streets at 4:09 a.m. when a confrontation ensued with a 24-year-old man and his companions, police News Affairs Officer John Mirabelli said.

The 24-year-old man pulled a knife and stabbed two men, ages 31 and 36, and battered a third man, who was the brother of the 31-year-old man, Mirabelli said.

All three victims were taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Mirabelli said. The two stabbing victims were in critical condition and the third victim was in “stable” condition.

The 24-year-old man was taken into custody but resisted arrest, Mirabelli said. A police officer suffered non-life threatening injuries during the arrest but was not hospitalized.

A police source said some of the men involved in the fight were allegedly gang members.

Police News Affairs Officer Joshua Purkiss said the investigation continued Sunday afternoon and could not confirm whether or not the men involved in the fight were allegedly gang members.

(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2012. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)