Booker Prize winning author Salman Rushdie was attacked as he was about to deliver a lecture in western New York on Friday, according to the Associated Press.
“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 author was taken or fell to the floor, and the man was restrained,” an Associated Press report stated.
The author’s condition is not known at this time. Videos from the area show Rushdie being taken to hospital in a medical helicopter.
Rushdie was due to deliver a lecture at the Chautauqua Institution. The audience was evacuated after the incident.
Rushdie suffered death threats for years after writing “The Satanic Verses” (1988). The book has been banned in Iran since then and a $3.3 million bounty remains on the author’s head. He wrote a book about being in hiding with a price upon his head titled “Joseph Anton,” the pseudonym he used while being underground.
Deepa Mehta directed a 2012 film based on Rushdie’s most celebrated novel “Midnight’s Children” and a series adaptation of the book was announced by Netflix in 2018.
As an actor, Rushdie has appeared as himself in “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and “Bridget Jones’ Diary.”
More to come.
