The Shard: "Sparkling gentle spire"

The Shard is due to be inaugurated later with a light show visible across London amid anger over the "exorbitant" price of visiting its viewing platform.

Europe's highest building's external completion is to be marked with a laser show beginning at 22:15 BST.

Beams will be fired from its summit to 15 London skyscrapers and landmarks such as the Gherkin and Canary Wharf.

Renzo Piano, the Shard's architect, described the building as "a sparkling quiet gentle spire, playing, flirting with the weather"