Former Government Minister Dr Frank McField is recovering in hospital after he was shot in the leg.

The attack happened early yesterday morning but detectives refused to release any details as to where the incident took place.

They did say they are looking for the driver of a black car, possibly a Toyota Supra,  who dropped 63-year-old Dr McField off at George Town Hospital.

Yesterday his estranged wife Christiane Schuette McField, said she believed Dr Frank would be airlifted to Miami for treatment.

A spokeswoman for the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service said: “Detectives investigating the circumstances which led to a man being admitted to the Cayman Islands Hospital with gunshot wounds this morning, are trying to trace the person who took the injured man to hospital.

“Shortly after 6.00 am today, Thursday 1 December 2011, the injured man was dropped off at the hospital by someone in a black car, possibly a Toyota Supra. Police are appealing for the driver of the car, or anyone who saw that car in the area, to come forward.

“Detectives have been interviewing the victim since his admission to hospital this morning. However, at this stage the circumstances around what happened, and where, are not clear.”

Mrs Schuette McField said she was still unsure as to what actually happened.

“I have no clue,” she said. “I really don’t know. He is not saying anything and I will just have to trust his decision on this. He is going to have to make up his mind, but I don’t know.”

“I saw him [yesterday] morning, and I will be going back to the hospital. He will have to go to Miami because the bone has to be put in place. The bullet hit the bone. I will be going with him.

“He’s getting medication and care, so he’s going to be all right.”

She dismissed rumours that he had accidentally shot himself. “He does not have a gun in the first place,” she said. “That would completely surprise me, and he would be embarrassed to put the bullet in the bone. It’s just not in his nature to own a gun. I would have seen that in his face if he did.”

She acknowledged that meant he was the victim of an assault: “Someone else must have done the deed,” she said, “but I can’t be sure what happened and I don’t know where he’s been. If someone had seen the car, I might be able to tell, but I really don’t know.”

Dr McField’s sister, Beulah Burton-McField, who heads Cayman’s Meals on Wheels charity, was reticent about details yesterday.

“I don’t want to comment right now,” Ms Burtin-McField said, declining to offer details about the incident. “He is okay and in the hospital. His injuries are not life-threatening and he will be fine.

Dr McField, who was educated in New York and England, was elected to public office in 1996. Five years later he became the Minister responsible for Community Development, Youth, Sports and Gender Affairs.