Novelist Salman Rushdie on ventilator after being stabbed in New York

Sir Salman Rushdie remains on a ventilator after being attacked on stage at an event in western New York state on Friday morning.

Rushdie, the author whose writing led to death threats from Iran in the 1980s, was stabbed in the neck and torso as he was about to give a lecture in western New York, The Guardian reports.

Rushdie, 75, was taken to surgery, and Andrew Wylie, his spokesperson, said in a statement early Friday evening that the author was put on a ventilator and had suffered significant injuries: “The news is not good. Salman will likely lose one eye; the nerves in his arm were severed, and his liver was stabbed and damaged.”

Authorities later identified the man suspected of stabbing Rushdie as 24-year-old Hadi Matar of Fairview, New Jersey, who had bought a pass to the event.

Rushdie’s interviewer, Henry Reese, 73, was also attacked and suffered a minor head injury, police said.

The assault happened shortly before 11 am at the Chautauqua Institution near Erie in western New York state close to Lake Erie, about 400 miles (644 km) northwest of New York City.

Rushdie, the author of 14 novels, had been invited to talk about the importance of the US offering asylum for writers and other artists in exile.