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Prime Minister Tony Abbott has decried the “insidious” king hit culture sweeping Sydney, saying police and the courts should throw the book at offenders.

Sydney has recently witnessed an increase in so-called king hit attacks, which has led to calls for a tougher approach to alcohol-fuelled violence.

Mr Abbott condemned what he said was the “rise of the disturbed individual”.

“Who goes out not looking for a fight, but looking for a victim,” he told Macquarie Radio.

Describing the attacks as “utterly cowardly”, brutal and gratuitous, Mr Abbott said offenders should be treated with “appropriate severity”.

“This is a vicious, horrible change, and I think that really the police, the courts, the judges, ought to absolutely throw the book at people who perpetrate this kind of gratuitous, unprovoked violence,” he said.