Cheney shoots fellow hunter in Texas

US vice-president Dick Cheney accidentally shot and injured a man during a weekend quail hunting trip in Texas, his spokeswoman said tonight.

Harry Whittington, 78, was “alert and doing fine” after Cheney sprayed Whittington with shotgun pellets at the Armstrong Ranch in south Texas yesterday, said property owner Katharine Armstrong.

She said Cheney turned to shoot a bird and accidentally hit Whittington.

Whittington was taken to Corpus Christi Memorial Hospital by ambulance, she said.

Cheney’s spokeswoman, Lea Anne McBride, said the vice-president was with Whittington, a lawyer from Austin, Texas, and his wife at the hospital this afternoon.