British author Salman Rushdie attacked on stage in New York State

Writer Salman Rushdie on the ground after his assault at the Chautauqua Institute in New York state on Friday, August 12, 2022. AP - Joshua Goodman

Text by: RFI Follow

1 min

British author Salman Rushdie, whose book

 made him the target of a fatwa by Iranian Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989, was attacked on Friday as he prepared to give a lecture . 

Advertising

Read more

A man rushed to the stage at the Chautauqua Institution as Salman Rushdie was introduced and began punching or stabbing the writer, a reporter said. American agency AP quoted by the British news channel.

Salman Rushdie fell to the ground and the attacker was subdued, said the AP journalist.

Video footage posted on social media showed people rushing to his aid.

According to Agence France-Presse, the police confirmed that a stab wound had been given while refusing to immediately identify the victim.

The writer's condition was not immediately known.

The author, now 75, shot into the limelight with his second novel

 in 1981, which won international acclaim and Britain's prestigious Booker Prize for its portrayal of post-independence India.

But his book 

 published seven years later earned him the target of a fatwa calling for his death by the Iranian Ayatollah Khomeini.

The novel was considered by some Muslims to be disrespectful to the Prophet Muhammad.

More information to come

Newsletter

Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

google-play-badge_FR

• United States