Prince Harry was involved in an early-morning scuffle with a photographer outside a London nightclub on Thursday, the palace said, revealing the photographer had received a cut lip in the fracas.
A spokesperson for Harry’s father, Prince Charles, said the 20-year-old prince was leaving the club Pangaea in the fashionable Mayfair district at about 3am when photographers tried to take pictures of him.
”Prince Harry was hit in the face by a camera as photographers crowded around him as he was getting into a car. In pushing the camera away, it’s understood that a photographer’s lip was cut,” he said.
The photographer was named as Chris Uncle (24), who reported the incident to the police and said he was considering whether to make a formal complaint.
London police at Scotland Yard said they were aware of the incident but no action was taken.
Uncle told the Evening Standard that Harry ”deliberately lashed out” at him, and a witness to the incident said the prince had sworn at the newsmen surrounding him.
”Prince Harry looked like he was inside the car and we were all still taking pictures. Then suddenly he burst out the car and lunged towards me as I was still taking pictures,” Uncle told the London paper.
”He lashed out and then deliberately pushed my camera into my face. The base of the camera struck me and cut my bottom lip. At the same time, he was repeatedly saying: ‘Why are you doing this? Why don’t you just leave me alone?”’
Uncle added that the prince’s protection officers pulled Harry away and pushed him back into the car.
Harry, third in line to the throne, was early this year photographed in London clubs, where he was reported to have consumed copious quantities of alcohol.
The reports led to criticism that the prince, who was revealed to have smoked cannabis and indulged in drinking sprees four years ago, was running out of control.
The latest controversy comes after claims from a teacher last week that Harry had cheated in his art exams in the summer. The claims were largely discounted as the teacher in question was involved in an unfair dismissal case with the school, Eton College.
Harry, who completed his schooling with only modest achievements this year, is to enter the army’s officer academy at Sandhurst in January. — Sapa-DPA