Author Salman Rushdie was attacked at an event in New York state on Friday, according to witness accounts and law enforcement reports.
Rushdie, who has faced death threats over his writing, was scheduled to give a lecture at the education center Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, in southwestern New York, Friday morning.
At around 11 a.m., a man "ran up onto the stage and attacked Rushdie and an interviewer," according to New York State Police.
Author Salman Rushdie, behind screen left, is tended to after he was attacked during a lecture, Aug. 12, 2022, at the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, N.Y.
Joshua Goodman/AP
Rushdie suffered an apparent stab wound to the neck and was transported by helicopter to the hospital, police said. His condition is unclear.
His agent told ABC News Friday afternoon that Rushdie is in surgery but did not have an update on his condition.
The Chautauqua County Sheriff's Department also confirmed to ABC News there was a stabbing at the event where Rushdie was speaking.
The suspect was taken into custody by a state trooper, police said.
An Associated Press reporter who was at the event saw a man go on stage and attack Rushdie as he was being introduced, the publication said. The author ended up on the floor and the man was restrained, according to the AP.
Author Salman Rushdie is tended to after he was attacked during a lecture, Aug. 12, 2022, at the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, N.Y.
Joshua Goodman/AP
In the aftermath of the attack, Rushdie, 75, was seen being tended to while on the stage.
The interviewer suffered a minor head injury during the attack, police said.
The Chautauqua Institution said it is "currently coordinating with law enforcement and emergency officials on a public response" following the attack on its stage and will provide more details at a later time.
Those in the audience expressed shock at the attack.
"He rushed the stage, it looked like he was punching him," Patrick Fogarty told Erie, Pennsylvania, ABC affiliate WJET. "It was all over very fast."
John Stein told WJET he was worried about security given Rushdie's notoriety.
"Somebody just ran up on stage," he said. "It was so quick. I was just thinking, am I really seeing this?"
Stein said when the attacker started to run off the stage following the assault he was apprehended with the help of a handful of attendees.
"People in the audience had gone up on the stage when they saw this and then grabbed the attacker, who still had a knife, I think," he told the station. "A lot of bravery."
One or two doctors in the audience also went on stage to help provide medical assistance, he said.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul called the attack "horrific," saying she has directed state police to "further assist however needed in the investigation."
"Here is an individual who has spent decades speaking truth to power, someone who has been out there, unafraid, despite the threats that have followed him through his entire adult life," Hochul remarked during a press briefing on an unrelated matter on Friday.
Police have not commented on a possible motive in the assault and the suspect has not been identified.
The British-Indian writer faced years of death threats after his novel, "The Satanic Verses," was published in 1988.
Author Salman Rushdie appears at a signing for his book "Home" in London on June 6, 2017.
Grant Pollard/Invision/AP
The late Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini accused the author of blasphemy over the book and in 1989 issued a fatwa against Rushdie, calling for his death.
Rushdie spent years in hiding, which he chronicled in his 2012 memoir, "Joseph Anton." The book was nominated for the United Kingdom’s top nonfiction award, the Samuel Johnson prize.
In 1998, the Iranian foreign minister said that the country no longer supported the fatwa against Rushdie, though a bounty for his death continues to be offered by an Iranian religious foundation. In 2012, the group increased the bounty from $2.8 million to $3.3 million.
Others have been attacked in connection with "The Satanic Verses," which was banned in several countries following its publication. Among them, Hitoshi Igarashi, who translated the book into Japanese, was stabbed to death in 1991 on the campus where he taught literature.
Rushdie has authored over a dozen books, including the Booker Prize-winning "Midnight's Children," and is a former president of the literary and human rights organization PEN America.
PEN America expressed "shock and horror" at the attack on Rushdie.
"We can think of no comparable incident of a public violent attack on a literary writer on American soil," Suzanne Nossel, CEO of PEN America, said in a statement.
"Salman Rushdie has been targeted for his words for decades but has never flinched nor faltered," she continued. "While we do not know the origins or motives of this attack, all those around the world who have met words with violence or called for the same are culpable for legitimizing this assault on a writer while he was engaged in his essential work of connecting to readers."
ABC News' Aaron Katersky and Somayeh Malekian contributed to this report.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
