By Ben Doherty, Dani Anguiano and Gloria Oladipo The Guardian
Salman Rushdie will likely lose an eye after attack, agent says
It is a little after midnight in New York. We are going to close this live blog now while the world awaits further news on the condition of Sir Salman Rushdie.
“The news is not good,” Andrew Wylie, Rushdie’s agent, said on Friday evening. “Salman will likely lose one eye; the nerves in his arm were severed; and his liver was stabbed and damaged.”
The Booker prize winner has lived for decades with threats and a bounty of more than $3m on offer for killing him over his 1988 book The Satanic Verses, regarded by some Muslims as blasphemous.
In 1989 Iran’s late leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini banned the book in Iran and issued a fatwa calling for Rushdie’s death, forcing the author into hiding for years.
Here is what we know so far:
- Acclaimed author Sir Salman Rushdie was stabbed while speaking at an event in New York on Friday. Rushdie, the author of 14 novels, was appearing at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York to speak about the importance of the US offering asylum for writers and other artists in exile.
- As he was being introduced to an audience of about 2,500 people, a man wearing a black mask stormed the stage and begin assaulting Rushdie, punching or stabbing him multiple times, according to witness accounts. Audience members rushed to help and apprehend the suspect before a state trooper at the event arrested him.
- The author was airlifted to a hospital and is undergoing surgery for his injuries, officials say, which include wounds to the neck and abdomen. Authorities have not released more information on his condition, though a doctor at the event described Rushdie’s wounds as “serious, but recoverable”. The event moderator was also attacked and suffered a facial injury.
- Police have identified the suspect as Hadi Matar, a 24-year-old from New Jersey who purchased a ticket for the event. Authorities believe he was acting alone and have not yet found any indication of his motive.
- Visitors at the centre raised questions about why there wasn’t tighter security for the event, the Associated Press reports, given Rushdie has faced threats for decades and a bounty of more than $3m offered for anyone who kills the author.
