Anderson Cooper temporarily blinded

U.S. newsman ANDERSON COOPER is recovering after he was temporarily blinded while on assignment in Portugal last week (ends02Dec12).

The broadcaster lost his sight after spending several hours filming on the water in bright sunshine for TV series 60 Minutes.

Cooper took to his Twitter.com page on Tuesday (04Dec12) to share a photo of himself wearing an eye patch, writing, "Temporarily blinded last week while on assignment. UV light bouncing off water. Much better now."

Cooper also opened up about the incident on his TV show Anderson Live, stressing to viewers the importance of protective eyewear.

He recalled, "I'm in this beautiful coastal area shooting a story for 60 Minutes involving the water... I'm on the water for two hours shooting this story, and it's overcast. I wake up in the middle of the night and it feels like my eyes are on fire, my eyeballs. And I think, 'Maybe I have sand in my eyes', I douse my eyes with water... Anyway, it turns out I have sunburned my eyeballs and I go blind. And I went blind for about 36 hours. I wanted to warn people about this. I didn't realise you could burn your eyeballs."