Author Sir Salman Rushdie, who has confronted dying threats for his novel The Satanic Verses, has been stabbed within the neck whereas on stage at an occasion in New York state.
The Indian-born British writer has been taken to hospital by helicopter however his situation isn’t but identified. His agent mentioned he’s present process surgical procedure.
The 75-year-old was about to provide a lecture when a person stormed the stage on the Chautauqua Institution and started attacking Sir Salman as he was being launched, in accordance with witnesses.
The novelist, who turned an American citizen in 2016, fell to the ground when the suspect attacked him. He was restrained and is now in custody.
Police mentioned the interviewer on the occasion suffered a minor head harm after additionally being attacked.
Read extra: Why is Salman Rushdie so controversial?
Witness Julia Mineeva Braun instructed Sky News that as Sir Salman was being launched “all of a sudden from the left-hand side of the stage a short man, (dressed) all in black, ran out and he approached Mr Rushdie”.
“It was very quick… we thought he was fixing his microphone and then we saw the knife. He starting stabbing him in the neck first… and Mr Rushdie got up and started running. After that, people in the audience got up on stage and pinned the attacker down. It’s hard to believe. We’re still in shock.”
New York governor Kathy Hochul mentioned a state police officer saved the writer’s life and that of the moderator, who she mentioned was additionally harm.
Ms Hochul added: “He is alive, he has been airlifted to safety. But here is an individual who has spent decades speaking truth to power, someone who’s been out there unafraid, despite the threats that have followed him his entire adult life.”
A video posted on-line confirmed various individuals speeding on stage within the aftermath as Sir Salman was tended to.
An image circulating on social media appeared to point out Sir Salman along with his legs barely raised and somebody making use of stress to his stomach.
On stage there have been two yellow chairs, a desk and rug. Dozens of viewers members have been current throughout the incident.
In one other video on Twitter, taken various rows again from the stage, a girl might be heard saying: “Hopefully they can save him because the first knife was right near his artery.”
Jeremy Genovese, 68, from Beachwood, Ohio, mentioned he arrived on the amphitheatre because it was being evacuated and that folks have been “streaming out”.
He mentioned: “People were in shock, many people in tears.”
Sir Salman was on account of communicate to Henry Reese, from the City of Asylum organisation, a residency programme for writers residing in exile underneath menace of persecution.
They have been on account of talk about America’s function as an asylum for writers and different artists in exile and as a house for freedom of inventive expression.
State police mentioned in an announcement they’re “investigating an attack on author Salman Rushdie prior to a speaking event at the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, NY”.
“At about 11am, a male suspect ran up onto the stage and attacked Rushdie and an interviewer. Rushdie suffered an apparent stab wound to the neck, and was transported by helicopter to an area hospital.”
They added: “The interviewer suffered a minor head injury. A State Trooper assigned to the event immediately took the suspect into custody. The Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office assisted at the scene.”
The police assertion gave no motive for the assault.
In an announcement, the Chautauqua Institution mentioned it’s “currently coordinating with law enforcement and emergency officials on a public response following today’s attack of Salman Rushdie on the Chautauqua Amphitheater stage. We will provide more details as we know them”.
His fourth ebook, The Satanic Verses, has been banned in Iran since 1988, as many Muslims take into account it to be blasphemous.
In 1989, Iran’s then chief Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, or edict, calling for Sir Salman’s dying.
The Middle East nation additionally provided a bounty of greater than $3m for anybody who kills the author.
In 1998, Iran’s pro-reform authorities of President Mohammad Khatami distanced itself from the fatwa, saying the menace in opposition to Rushdie was over after he had lived in hiding for 9 years.
The ebook’s Japanese translator was stabbed to dying in 1991 and different individuals concerned in publishing it have been attacked.
But Ayatollah Khomeini’s successor as Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, mentioned in 2005 that the fatwa was nonetheless legitimate and three hardline clerics known as on followers to kill Rushdie.
Source: information.sky.com”