CHAUTAUQUA, NEW YORK (AP) – Salman Rushdie was stabbed in the neck and abdomen on Friday by a man who rushed the stage as the author was about to give a lecture in western New York.
A bloodied Rushdie, 75, was flown to a hospital and underwent surgery. His agent Andrew Wylie said the writer was on a ventilator on Friday evening, with a damaged liver, severed nerves in his arm and an eye he was likely to lose.
Police identified the attacker as Hadi Matar, 24, of Fairview, New Jersey. He was awaiting arraignment following his arrest at the Chautauqua Institution, a nonprofit education and retreat centre where Rushdie was scheduled to speak.
Matar was born in the United States to Lebanese parents who emigrated from Yaroun. The motive for the attack was unclear, State Police Major Eugene Staniszewski said.
