A police officer and two people have been stabbed at the scene of a two-car crash on a major southern Sydney highway.

The vehicles collided about 9am in Engadine on Sunday, with police rushing to the scene to discover an injured man sprinting away.

“Officers attached to Sutherland Shire Police Area Command arrived to find a man – who appeared to be suffering stab wounds – allegedly running from the crash scene,” the force said in a statement.

“He was taken into custody with the deployment of a Taser.”

A male officer suffered a serious laceration to his left wrist, seemingly during the arrest.

Meanwhile, a woman who police understand was a passenger of one of the crashed cars, was found with multiple stab wounds.

A fourth person was also found injured, though their link to the incident was unclear.

All four were being treated by paramedics.

A five-kilometre stretch of the Princes Highway was closed in both directions.

Chairman of Cronulla Sharks NRL club Steve Mace told News Corp’s Daily Telegraph he encountered the armed man face-to-face after stopping at the crash site while on his way to his young son’s junior football game.

Mr Mace said the woman suffered wounds to her neck, chest and stomach.

“The police tasered him,” he said of the alleged attacker.

“Somehow he raced up the hill … that’s when I found out a police officer was stabbed … there was a lot of blood everywhere.”