On the 12th of August, Ahmed Salman Rushdie was brutally attacked at an event in New York. The Novelist was on stage preparing for his lecture when a 24-year-old New Jersey man rushed to the platform and stabbed him in the neck and abdomen, injuring him severely.
The incident took place on Friday morning at the Chautauqua center where Mr. Rushdie was set to discuss how the United States is a safe place for writers that have been exiled. But he was attacked before he could even give his points in the scheduled event.
The Indian-born author was assisted by members of the audience, one of them happened to be a physician who performed first aid on him before he was airlifted from the education center and taken to an area hospital where he underwent immediate surgery.
At the time Mr. Rushdie’s health status was unknown, until later that evening when his agent, Andrew Wylie, sent an emailed update to The New York Times stating that his health was not at all good. The 75-year-old is said to have been placed on a ventilator and suffered wounds to his eye, severed nerves in his arm, and a damaged liver.
Ralph Henry Reese, the event’s moderator who was onstage with Mr. Rushdie when he got attacked sustained minor injuries and was released from the hospital in the afternoon.
The attacker identified as Hadi Matar was taken into custody and very little has been revealed about his motives.
Story is still developing.
