A 36-year-old man is dead and two people have been arrested following reports of more than a dozen people "fighting with weapons" at a home in Alice Springs, NT Police says.
Detective Senior Sergeant Peter Maley said officers found the man with life-threatening injuries and gave him first aid after responding to a callout about 2:30am on Friday.
"Attending police were there within two minutes," he said.
"They located a male who was seriously injured in the rear yard of the premises. He was still breathing, but bleeding heavily."
Senior Sergeant Maley said police and St John Ambulance paramedics performed CPR and tried to stem the bleeding but were unable to save the man, who was declared dead at the scene.
Police said the victim had been attacked with a knife during the fight, which involved more than 12 people.
Two men arrested
The incident took place at a home in Gillen, one of the central suburbs in Alice Springs, police said.
Senior Sergeant Maley said police arrested a 39-year-old man and a 40-year-old man, who were both in custody assisting police with inquiries.
"They are all from Alice Springs," he said.
"It looks like there was an earlier incident involving rocks being thrown at a house and a group from another address have then attended that murder scene.
"I think we are interviewing 20-plus at this stage."
Senior Sergeant Maley said two crime scenes had been established across Ashwin Street and Lewis Street, one in the house the man was stabbed and a second where the murder weapon was found.
A 'disturbing' incident for officers
Detectives from the Crime Command, Regional Investigations Division are continuing to investigate the incident and have been using a drone to survey the area.
"There may be other offences identified but right now we are still working through that," Senior Sergeant Maley said.
He said police who attended were offered counselling.
"It's always disturbing when you go to a critical incident like that," Senior Sergeant Maley said.
"Some of the officers who attended initially were brand new."
