UPDATE: TWO men have serious injuries and one man is facing a string of offences after an altercation led to an alleged double stabbing.

Police have charged a 25-year-old Burnside man after a fight broke out between two groups of men in Ballarat just after 5am (AEDT) this morning.

The victims received neck and back injuries.

One man was released from Ballarat Base Hospital, but the other will be transferred to Melbourne for surgery with serious, but non-life threatening injuries.

The stabbing allegedly occurred outside a Ballarat taxi rank.