A number of riots have taken place across the UK in the past week, fueled by anti-immigration sentiment from the far-right.

Plenty of vandalism and violence has occurred, with cars and buildings burnt, projectiles thrown at mosques, police attacked and hotels believed to be housing asylum seekers broken into.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer gave a televised address on Sunday (August 4) and warned those involved that they would "regret" taking part.

He said: "People in this country have a right to be safe, and yet we've seen Muslim communities targeted, attacks on mosques.

"Other minority communities singled out, Nazi salutes in the street, attacks on the police, wanton violence alongside racist rhetoric, so no, I won't shy away from calling it what it is: far-right thuggery."

But why have the riots taken place and why has it escalated as the week has gone on?

Why have riots happened in the UK?

The riots happened in the wake of the killing of three young girls at a dance studio in Southport on Monday (July 29).

Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, were killed and eight others were injured, some severely.

Rumours emerged on social media claiming that the attacker was a man called Ali Al-Shakati who was a Muslim asylum seeker.

However, this wasn't true, with the individual accused of the charges being identified as 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana in court.

Judge Andrew Menary made the exceptional decision to lift reporting restrictions despite his age in an attempt to stop misinformation.

Rudakubana was born in Cardiff to parents of Rwanda heritage, before moving to the village of Banks just outside of Southport.

A vigil in Southport was held on Tuesday (July 30) but on the same evening, hundreds of protestors gathered outside a mosque in the town.

There were chants expressing Islamophobic and anti-immigration sentiment alongside support for Tommy Robinson, the founder of the EDL (English Defence League).

Objects were also thrown at the mosque and at riot police who came in to deal with the disorder, with a police van being set alight.

After that, similar riots followed across the UK for the rest of the week in places such as Rotherham, Hull, Middlesbrough, Bristol, Tamworth and Liverpool.

Much of the reasoning behind the riots has been Islamophobia and anger towards immigration, both legal and illegal.

The Financial Times writes: "The killings in Southport — although by a UK-born resident — prompted a torrent of disinformation blaming both immigrants in general, and Muslims in particular, for crime.

"Far-right sympathisers also accuse the police of treating nationalist and white protesters more harshly on the streets than they do, for example, pro-Palestine demonstrators."

How is the Government responding to the riots?

Starmer has indicated that the response to the violence could mirror elements of how the 2011 riots were handled, at which time he was the director of public prosecutions.

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"We do have standing arrangements for law enforcement which means that we can get arrests... and convictions done very quickly," he said.

"I myself was part of that in 2011 when I was director of public prosecutions, and I'm determined we will do whatever it takes to bring these thugs to justice as quickly as possible."

The Home Office also announced that mosques would be offered greater protection under a new “rapid response process” designed to quickly tackle the threat of further attacks on places of worship.