Salmon Rushdie attacked

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Salman Rushdie, the author whose writing led to death threats from Iran in the 1980s, was attacked Friday as he was about to give a lecture in western New York.

An Associated Press reporter witnessed a man storm the stage at the Chautauqua Institution and begin punching or stabbing Rushdie as he was being introduced. The 75-year-old author was pushed or fell to the floor, and the man was restrained.

Rushdie was quickly surrounded by a small group of people who held up his legs, presumably to send more blood to his chest.

His condition was not immediately known.

A bounty of over $3 million has also been offered for anyone who kills Rushdie.

The attack occurred at 11 a.m., the state police said. A trooper assigned to the event immediately took the suspect into custody. The person interviewing Mr. Rushdie suffered a minor head injury.

Rita Landman, an endocrinologist who was in the audience, walked on stage to offer assistance after the talk. She said that Mr. Rushdie had multiple stab wounds, including one to the right side of his neck, and that there was a pool of blood under his body. But she said he appeared to be alive and was not receiving CPR.

“People were saying, ‘He has a pulse, he has a pulse he has a pulse,’” Ms. Landman said.

Bill Vasu, 72, who attended the event, said that he had seen the man rush over to Mr. Rushdie and start attacking him. “I could just see his fists sort of pounding on Salman,” he said.

Rushdie's agent, Andrew Wylie, said in an email that the writer was in surgery. Wylie said he did not have an update on Rushdie’s condition.

The writer Ayad Akhtar said he never saw Rushdie bring along a security detail in recent years, whether he was at the theater, out to dinner or on stage at a public event. Akhtar,the current president of PEN America, said that he and Rushdie never discussed the threats the novelist faced over his book “The Satanic Verses,” but that he seemed perfectly comfortable out in the world.

Literary figures and public officials said that they were shocked by the news that the author Salman Rushdie had been stabbed in the neck on Friday morning while onstage to give a lecture at the Chautauqua Institute in western New York.

“We cannot immediately think of any comparable incident of a public violent attack on a writer during a literary event here in the United States,” said Suzanne Nossel, the chief executive officer of the nonprofit literary organization PEN America, who noted that the motivations for the attack and Mr. Rushdie’s current condition were unknown as of Friday late morning.

Mr. Rushdie is a former president of PEN America, which advocates for writers’ freedom of expression around the world.

She said in a statement that the organization’s members were “reeling from shock and horror.”

Ms. Nossel said Mr. Rushdie had emailed her hours before the attack to ask about helping Ukrainian writers in need of safe refuge.

“Salman Rushdie has been targeted for his words for decades, but has never flinched nor faltered,” she said. “He has devoted tireless energy to assisting others who are vulnerable and menaced.”

The author Neil Gaiman wrote on Twitter that he was “shocked and distressed” about the attack.

“He’s a good man and a brilliant one and I hope he’s okay,” he said.

Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York said she had directed state police to assist with the investigation into Mr. Rushdie’s attack. A man was immediately taken into custody, according to a statement from the state police.

“Our thoughts are with Salman & his loved ones following this horrific event,” Ms. Hochul said on Twitter.

Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York also spoke out on social media, calling the attack “shocking and appalling.”

“It is an attack on freedom of speech and thought, which are two bedrock values of our country and of the Chautauqua Institution,” Mr. Schumer wrote. “I hope Mr. Rushdie quickly and fully recovers and the perpetrator experiences full accountability and justice.”

A spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the country’s largest Muslim civil rights group, said he was concerned that people might rush to blame Muslims or Islam for the stabbing before the attacker’s identity or motive were known.

“American Muslims, like all Americans, condemn any violence targeting anyone in our society,” said Ibrahim Hooper. “That goes without saying. We will have to monitor the situation and see what facts come to light.”


A representative for the Iranian interests section at the embassy of Pakistan in Washington, D.C., which diplomatically represents the government of Iran in the United States, declined to comment on the attack. “We are not getting involved in this," said the representative, who declined to give his name before he hung up.

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New York State Police identified the suspect who attacked Salman Rushdie as Hadi Matar, 24, from Fairview, New Jersey. The suspect stabbed Rushdie at least once in the neck and at least once in the abdomen, authorities said. Rushdie is undergoing surgery, state police said.

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