Prince in award death risk gaffe

Prince Edward was speaking in Australia after being asked about the death of Sydney teenager David Iredale in the nearby Blue Mountains three years ago.

Edward did not speak about the particular case, but remarked that interest in the scheme jumped after the death of another teenager in Britain years ago.

The DofE said in a statement: "The Duke of Edinburgh's Award has an exemplary safety record and has no record of a death of a DofE participant in the UK as a direct result of their DofE expedition. Over 182,000 participants in the UK do an expedition each year."

Edward had been asked about the 17-year-old who died in December 2006 after getting lost in the Australian bush during a three-day hike.

The coroner who held the inquest into the youngster's death said he died from severe dehydration as a result of a miscalculation of the amount of water he and two schoolfriends would need for the trip in the Blue Mountain in New South Wales. The teenager believed the walk would count towards his silver Duke of Edinburgh award.

Edward told The Australian newspaper: "Suddenly the award, which was new...(its) reputation among young people was, 'Wow, this is serious. You could die doing this'. And the sense of adventure, the sense of excitement, that it gave you that sort of risk element - young people are like that still, that sense of adventure, the sense that it (death) is possible.

"Obviously we don't want that to happen. Certainly it's not our intention: we give them the skills to go out there and do it safely and constructively. It was just that psychology, about what makes young people tick."

Edward is visiting Australia to promote the DofE award and discuss its future at the International Award for Young People's forum.

The DofE award scheme was set up in 1956 and offers bronze, silver and gold awards to young people who take on a series of increasingly challenging tasks.