The British author, target of a fatwa by Iranian Ayatollah Rouhollah Khomeini in 1989 after the publication of his book "The Satanic Verses", is "alive" according to state governor Kathy Hochul.

Within the government, the Minister of Culture Rima Abdul Malak denounced on Twitter a "barbaric act" and paid tribute to "33 years of courage", while Pap Ndiaye, Minister of National Education, praised a writer " symbol of freedom and erudition, which no Islamist obscurantism will stop".

The President of the National Assembly Yaël Braun-Pivet described a "committed thinker", "victim today of an attack as cowardly as it is abominable".

For the leader of the Renaissance deputies in the Assembly Aurore Bergé, Salman Rushdie is "the very expression of freedom".

"It is a symbol of resistance against Islamist totalitarianism that has been attacked," reacted for his part the president of the National Rally, Jordan Bardella.

"This attack proves that the Islamists will never disarm," added the mayor of Perpignan Louis Aliot, candidate for the head of the National Rally.

"The religious fanatics who launched a fatwa against him undoubtedly bear the responsibility," vilified the Insoumis MP Alexis Corbière.

"Stabbed by Islamist hatred", castigated the communist leader Fabien Roussel.

Boris Vallaud, leader of the socialist deputies condemned a "serious and intolerable attack while the president of the environmental group in the Assembly Julien Bayou castigated a "ignoble fatwa".

For former right-wing presidential candidate Valérie Pécresse, Salman Rushdie "embodies freedom of expression in the face of Islamist totalitarians".

The interim president of the Republicans Annie Genevard estimated that "the fight of our democracies must be without weakness against an enemy who is playing for the long term to reduce our freedom".

Mr. Rushdie was preparing to give a lecture in an amphitheater in Chautauqua, in northwestern New York State, near Lake Erie which separates the United States from Canada.

His attacker, whose identity is not yet known, was immediately arrested and taken into custody.

© 2022 AFP