Rushdie was flown by helicopter to a local hospital, according to the police statement, which also said the person who interviewing Rushdie at the Chautauqua Institution in Western New York suffered a minor head injury.
An endocrinologist who was in the audience and offered assistance told the New York Times that Rushdie had multiple stab wounds and there was a pool of blood under his body. She said people were saying “he has a pulse, he has a pulse.”
At about 11 a.m. ET, the Associated Press said its reporter witnessed a man storm the stage and begin punching or stabbing 75-year-old Rushdie before the attacker was restrained.
Rushdie’s condition was uncertain as people attempt to gather more information. Images on AP show him surrounded by others who rushed onstage immediately after he was attacked. AP said Rushdie quickly was surrounded by a small group of people who held up his legs, presumably to send more blood to his chest.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said: “I want to commend the state police. It was a state police officer who stood up and protected him.”
Rushdie has both British and American citizenship and the Chautauqua Institution lecture was supposed to be the first in a seven-part series hosted by the non-profit organization.
Rushdie’s controversial book The Satanic Verses has been banned in Iran since 1988, as many Muslims consider it to be blasphemous, and since the late 1980s, there has been a fatwa calling for Rushdie’s death that still exists today, ordered by Ayatollah Khomeini. In 1989, a failed assassination attempt on him in London ended with a bomb exploding prematurely.
