New York: Controversial author Salman Rushdie, whose 'The Satanic Verses' led to death threats against him for blasphemy, was attacked while participating in an event in New York state, media reports said.
Rushdie has a multi-million-dollar bounty on his head.
State Police said Rushdie, who appeared to have been stabbed in his neck, was flown by helicopter to a hospital from the remote education and spiritual centre in Chautauqua about 550 km from New York City, but did not disclose his condition.
India-born Rushdie, 75, was speaking at an event of the Chautauqua Institution when a man ran onto the stage and either punched or stabbed him, the BBC reported citing eyewitnesses.
According to reports, amid gasps of horror from the audience, a few people ran onstage and managed to restrain the assailant, while others rushed to the aid of the author who had collapsed on the stage.
The alleged assailant, who pushed him to the floor and attacked him, was taken into custody by a state police trooper who was there, police said.
The attacker's identity was not immediately known.
"Rushdie suffered an apparent stab wound to the neck," the police statement said. Watch Video:
Salman Rushdie, who was stabbed at an event in New York, is being flown to hospital. No word on his condition pic.twitter.com/zQmOZH1jvG— BNO News (@BNONews) August 12, 2022
Salman Rushdie, who was stabbed at an event in New York, is being flown to hospital. No word on his condition pic.twitter.com/zQmOZH1jvG
An eyewitness told the Daily Beast that the attacker was "heavy set and wearing a black headpiece".
The witness, Ward Pautler, said that he thought the attacker was "punching Rushdie, but then I realised he was stabbing him".
Various Iranian organisations put rewards of more than $3 million for killing the 75-year-old India-born writer.
Rushdie went underground with British government protection for several years and moved to the US in 2000 and has since been in public.
He escaped an assassination attempt in 1989 when a bomb went off at a London hotel where he was thought to be staying and demolished two floors of the building.
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