https://www.bbc.com/ukrainian/news-62524644
According to world news agencies, Rushdie was preparing to give a lecture to a public organization in the town of Chotoqua in western New York, and he was already being introduced to the public when an unknown person jumped on the stage and attacked the writer.
According to Agence France Presse, police say the assailant stabbed Rushdie. Rushdie, according to the agencies, fell. The attacker was pinned down.
A video of the first seconds after the attack on Rushdie is being circulated on social networks. The writer was carried out of the Chotokua Institute building on a stretcher and taken by helicopter to the hospital. Rushdie was stabbed at least once in the neck and at least once in the stomach. He was flown to a hospital in Ayr, Pennsylvania by helicopter.
"The news is bad. Salman is likely to lose one eye; severed nerves in his arm; stabbed liver damaged," writer's agent Andrew Wylie said in a written statement to Reuters. According to him, Rushdie is now connected to a ventilator.
Police have arrested a suspect named Hadi Matar, 24, from New Jersey. The police have not yet confirmed any motives or charges.
According to eyewitnesses, the attacker was wearing a mask and stabbed Rushdie several times, after which the writer fell, and people from the audience rushed to his aid, who also helped to twist the attacker. According to police, Matar had a pass for Rushdie's lecture and, judging by preliminary data, he acted on his own.
Native American Salman Rushdie is the author of a book about Islam, The Satanic Verses. This book, also published in Ukraine, is considered blasphemous by many Muslims, and in 1988 Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa ordering the assassination of Rushdie. For the head of a writer living in the West, one Islamic fund promises 3.3 million dollars. Dozens of people died violent deaths, including the translators of the book. The bounty on Rushdie's head is still relevant, although the Iranian government has distanced itself from Khomeini's decree.
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