Police say they are looking for four suspects after a male student was stabbed outside a downtown high school.

Police responded to calls about the stabbing at approximately 1:10 p.m. Tuesday at Toronto’s Central Tech high school, located at the corner of Bathurst and Harbord Streets.

Paramedics said the 19-year-old victim, who is a student at the school, was found with multiple stab wounds before being rushed to hospital.

The man was found outside the front doors of the school, but police believe he was stabbed in nearby laneway after an altercation between two groups of people, Toronto Police Const. Victor Kwong said.

The man was conscious and breathing when he was transported to hospital, paramedics said. He has a punctured lung, but is expected to survive.

Det. Jessica McInnis told reporters at the scene that the stabbing was “not a random attack.”

“It appears to be some sort of dispute and it escalated,” she said.

The victim, who was already known to police, is facing charges in connection with an unrelated incident, police said.

Investigators say they have been able to identify the suspects with the help of security footage from the school’s 57 surveillance cameras.

The suspects are described as being in their late teens and of Somalian descent, but police have not released their identities.

Police recovered two knives from the scene and are continuing to investigate.

The school was under lockdown as a result of the incident, but has since reopened.

Several worried parents showed up to the school after receiving text messages and phone calls from their children telling them about the stabbing.

“I was shocked,” said Katie Bruch, one of the parents. “It’s not the kind of thing you expect on the first day of school, or any day of school.”

In a statement issued on Tuesday afternoon, the Toronto District School Board said social workers will be present at Central Tech starting on Wednesday “to support students, faculty, and staff.”

Police are calling on the suspects to turn themselves in.

With a report from Natalie Johnson