Salman Rushdie, the Indian-born British author who wrote books that led to death threats from Iran in the 1980s, was stabbed when he was about to deliver a lecture in southwestern New York state.
According to Police, Rushdie was stabbed “at least once in the neck, and at least once in the abdomen” recently after an assailant who rushed to the stage lunged at him as he was being introduced to the audience.
After he was airlifted to the hospital and spent hours in surgery, Rushdie was on a ventilator and could not speak.
In an email sent to Reuters, Rushdie’s book agent, Andrew Willie wrote: “The news is not good. Salman will likely lose one eye; the nerves in his arm were severed, and his liver was stabbed and damaged.”
24-year-old Hadi Matar from New Jersey has been identified as the suspect by the police.
While talking to reporters recently, Major Eugene Staniszewski of New York state police said officials do not have “any indication of a motive” at this “very early” level of the investigation and that they believed Matar was acting alone.
Stacey Schlosser, who was at the scene of the attack, told The Associated Press that Rushdie was stabbed six to eight times before the attacker was stopped.
Schlosser said: “Nobody knew what to do. Nobody knew how to react. I mean, there were tons of people that rushed the stage.”
Bradley Fisher, who was part of the audience said: “A man jumped up on the stage from I don’t know where and started what looked like beating him on the chest, repeated fist strokes into his chest and neck.
“People were screaming and crying out and gasping.”
The attendees pulled the stabber off Rushdie, who was already on the floor. A New York state police trooper offering security at the event arrested the attacker, while a doctor in the audience took care of Rushdie till emergency services arrived.
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