A MAN has been arrested by police in connection with a savage attack on a horse.

The five-year-old black and white cob stallion was repeatedly slashed with glass. It was stabbed in the shoulder and in the back leg, with the neck of a broken wine bottle which was left embedded in its flesh.

It had to be destroyed following the attack, which officers described as one of the most savage they had seen.

The incident, which happened near the Metz Bridge, in Middlesbrough, occurred just days after the RSPCA revealed the North-East had the UK's highest number of cruelty convictions for the eighth year running.

A Cleveland Police spokeswoman said: "A 40-year-old man has been arrested and released on police bail in connection with causing unnecessary suffering."