Three racehorses have died during the three-day racing festival in Aintree amid protests by animal rights campaigners.

Hill Sixteen died during a race on the third and final day of the racing festival after falling at the first fence. 

Another horse, Dark Raven, also died after racing earlier on Saturday afternoon and Special Envoy died on Thursday during the first day of the three-day festival. 

Campaigners from Animal Rising said the deaths prove their actions were justified at yesterday's protests.  

“This is what we were trying to stop from happening,” the group said on Twitter. “Several horses fell during this race – how many will be killed due to their injuries?” 

Police arrested 118 people following protests that saw campaigners getting on to the course at Aintree and gluing themselves to the jumps.

BREAKING! Supporters of Animal Rising have run onto the tracks ahead of the Grand National Handicap Race, delaying the race indefinitely.

In the UK alone, 49 horses have died or been killed so far this year due to horseracing: this is unacceptable.

We are a nation of animal… pic.twitter.com/Hshm0q692n

— Animal Rising (@AnimalRising) April 15, 2023

The race started 14 minutes late after its scheduled start time of 5:15pm as a result of the protests. Police said they made 118 arrests for both "criminal damage and public nuisance offences". 

Animal Rising member Ora Coughlan said: “the first thing we were hoping to do was obviously stopping the race and to protect those horses from racing.” 

“The second thing that we’re trying to do, perhaps the more important thing, is start this national conversation on how we treat animals.”