Sir Salman Rushdie in hospital after stabbing

Aman has been taken into custody after Sir Salman Rushdie was stabbed on stage in New York state as he was about to deliver a lecture at the Chautauqua Institution.

Sir Salman, 75, suffered apparent stab wounds to the neck and abdomen and was transported to hospital by helicopter where his condition remains unclear.

Sir Salman’s book The Satanic Verses has been banned in Iran since 1988, as many Muslims view it as blasphemous and its publication prompted Iran’s then-leader Ayatollah Khomeini to issue a fatwa calling for his execution.

Sir Salman was due to speak to Henry Reese, from the City of Asylum organisation, a residency programme for writers living in exile under threat of persecution.

New York state police have named the suspected attacker as Hadi Matar, 24, of Fairview, New Jersey.

They said the suspect had an access pass for the event where Rushdie was attacked.

New York governor Kathy Hochul told a press conference a state police officer saved his life and that of the moderator, who she said was also attacked.

She added: “He is alive, he has been airlifted to safety.

“But here is an individual who has spent decades speaking truth to power, someone who’s been out there unafraid, despite the threats that have followed him his entire adult life.”

Jeremy Genovese, 68, from Beachwood, Ohio, a retired academic from Cleveland State University, told reporters he arrived at the amphitheatre as it was being evacuated and that people were “streaming out”.

He said: “People were in shock, many people in tears. Chautauqua has always prided itself as a place where people can engage in civil dialogue.

“The amphitheatre is a large outdoor venue where people have giving lectures since the late 1800s.

“You need a pass to access the grounds but it is not too difficult get in.”

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he was “appalled that Sir Salman Rushdie has been stabbed while exercising a right we should never cease to defend”, adding: “Right now my thoughts are with his loved ones.”

Sir Salman was previously president of PEN America, which celebrates free expression and speech, and its chief executive Suzanne Nossel said: “PEN America is reeling from shock and horror at word of a brutal, premeditated attack on our former president and stalwart ally, Salman Rushdie.”

She added: “Our thoughts and passions now lie with our dauntless Salman, wishing him a full and speedy recovery.

“We hope and believe fervently that his essential voice cannot and will not be silenced.”

Sir Salman began his writing career in the early 1970s with two unsuccessful books before Midnight’s Children, about the birth of India, which won the Booker Prize in 1981.

It went on to bring him worldwide fame and was named “best of the Bookers” on the literary award’s 25th anniversary.

He lived in hiding for many years in London under a British Government protection programme after Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for his execution over The Satanic Verses.

In 1998, the Iranian Government withdrew its support for the death sentence and Sir Salman gradually returned to public life, even appearing as himself in the 2001 hit film Bridget Jones’s Diary.

The Index on Censorship, an organisation promoting free expression, said money was raised to boost the reward for Sir Salman’s killing as recently as 2016, underscoring the fact the fatwa for his death still stands.

He was knighted in 2008 and earlier this year was made a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour in the Queen’s Birthday Honours.

ATTACK: A man rushed on to the stage and stabbed Sir Salman in the neck as he was about to deliver a lecture to the Chautauqua Institution.