Dick Cheney (file photo)

U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot and wounded a fellow hunter while hunting quail in southern Texas.

A witness to the shooting, Katharine Armstrong, said Mr. Cheney fired a shotgun late Saturday at a flying bird without realizing the other hunter was in the line of fire.

The injured man, 78-year-old attorney Harry Whittington, was taken to a hospital in Corpus Christi, Texas, where he was in stable condition.

He was hit with shotgun pellets in his right cheek, neck and chest.

Mr. Cheney visited Whittington in the hospital Sunday before his scheduled return to Washington.

The vice president, an avid hunter, was hunting on a large ranch, a place where he has hunted before.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP and AP.