The attacker is in police custody, authorities said.
Courtesy | He received medical attention and was later airlifted to the hospital.
British writer Salman Rushdie suffered an attack this Friday during a conference that was taking place in Chautauqua, a town in western New York state.
The author of works such as ‘Satanic Verses’ was going to intervene in the public act when a person attacked him.
According to the first information from the New York Police, the British-Indian author, threatened with death for his writings for decades, has been stabbed in the neck and later transferred by helicopter to the hospital. Authorities reported that his condition is critical.
Writer Carl LeVan has claimed on Twitter that he witnessed the attack, describing that Rushdie was “stabbed several times before the attacker was subdued by security.”
Police have also confirmed that the suspect is in police custody.
The writer Salman Rushdie, attacked in a public event in New York
– Guillermo Rodríguez (@guirodi) August 12, 2022
“We are deeply concerned by the news that former PEN America President Salman Rushdie has been attacked today just before giving a lecture at the Chautauqua Institution in New York. We condemn the attack and wish him a speedy recovery, ”he said through Twitter PEN International, an association of writers that defends freedom of expression and the press.
Threatened for over 30 years
Rushdie, 75, was the subject of a ‘fatwa’ (religious decree) in Iran that sentenced him to death for blasphemy and forced him to spend years in hiding after the publication of his book ‘The Satanic Verses’ in 1988.
The work, a novel in which fiction is combined with philosophical reflection and a sense of humor.
The work aroused the ire of Shiite Muslims, who considered it an insult to the Koran, Muhammad and the Islamic faith and was banned in India, Pakistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and South Africa.
Rushdie, who has lived under the protection of bodyguards for decades, has lived in New York City for about 20 years and was scheduled to speak today at the Chautauqua Institution, a cultural center in western New York.
The Iranian government eventually distanced itself from Khomeini’s ‘fatwa’, but in 2012 a semi-official Iranian religious foundation raised Rushdie’s reward from $2.8 million to $3.3 million.
In photographs and videos published on social networks, a person, identified as Rushdie, can be seen on the ground and being attended to on stage.
Salman Rushdie was stabbed in the neck and airlifted to hospital. His status is currently unknown. pic.twitter.com/5trUcnMjVa
— Alejo Schapire (@aschapire) August 12, 2022
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