Duke of York set for daredevil abseil down The Shard

The Duke of York is set to abseil down The Shard, the tallest building in western Europe, in a bid to raise money for charity.

Prince Andrew, accompanied by 39 others including the Foreign Secretary's wife Ffion Hague, will take part in the challenge in support of the educational charity The Outward Bound Trust and the Royal Marines Charitable Trust Fund.

Descent Of The Shard will see twenty of the group, including the Duke, take part in the full abseil which spans 250m between the summit of the building at 87th floor down to the 20th floor on September 3. The rest of the group will abseil between the summit and 78th floor.

The 1,016ft (309.6m) skyscraper, situated just yards from the banks of the River Thames in Southwark, was inaugurated by the Qatari prime minister and minister of foreign affairs, Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jabr Al-Thani, and the Duke of York, earlier this month.