The gaffe-prone Duke of Edinburgh came under fire from the British Deaf Association yesterday after offending a group of deaf youngsters with an "insensitive" off the cuff remark.

The latest embarrassing incident for Prince Philip came when he joked that the youngsters had been deafened by standing too close to a steel band playing Caribbean music at a celebration in Wales.

Pointing to the loudspeakers the duke said: "Deaf? If you are near there no wonder you are deaf," before walking away.

The youngsters, members of the British Deaf Association group, said they had been shocked and insulted by the duke's remarks, which were made at a Festival of the Future event at Cardiff castle during Wednesday's celebrations marking the opening of the Welsh assembly.

The group's leader, Eva Fielding-Jackson, said: "When the duke came along, I stopped him and said 'My group would like to meet you we are the British Deaf Association from Cardiff.'

"He said 'Deaf? If you are near there' - meaning near the music - 'no wonder you are deaf' and he walked away. He was not joking.

"What right have we got to ask the layman to be more aware of deaf issues if the royal family know nothing about it?

"As if it's our fault we are deaf because we were near the music. If he was trying to be funny, then he needs some more exercises in being funny. That was not funny at all."

Student Elizabeth Jenkins, 19, was insulted. "It was such a shock." Neil Roach, 17, said: "He should have shaken our hands and shown us some respect."

A spokesman for the BDA, whose patron is the Duke of York, said Prince Philip's comment reflected the lack of understanding about deafness. "Many thousands of people in this country were born deaf and did not become deaf because they listen to lots of loud music."

The duke's propensity for putting both feet in his mouth is legendary, offending Hungarians, Chinese and Scots.

An intended compliment to Hungarian cooking went wrong when he told a tourist in Hungary: "You can't have been here long, you've no pot belly."

During a state visit in 1986 Prince Philip described Beijing as "ghastly" and told British students in China: "If you stay here much longer you'll all be slitty eyed."

He also asked a Scottish driving instructor: "How do you keep the natives off the booze long enough to get them past the test?"

After visiting the state university in Brunei he told a local businessman: "I don't know how those students are going to integrate in places like Glasgow and Sheffield. I had to commiserate with them."

A student who had been trekking in Papua New Guinea was greeted by the prince with the words: "You didn't manage to get eaten then?"