Stargazers caught a spectacular celestial display in the early hours of Sunday morning as the Perseid meteor shower flashed through the night sky.

The Perseid meteor shower, one of the brightest and best-known meteor showers, comes round every August and is the result of shedding by comet Swift-Tuttle.

The display peaked in the UK on Saturday and into Sunday, but can be seen all around the world.

The Perseids were the first meteor shower to be linked to a comet when astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli spotted their association with Swift-Tuttle in 1862.

The comet orbits the sun every 135 years.

As the Earth crosses its orbit, it ploughs through some of the debris left by the icy object on previous visits.