After author Salman Rushdie was stabbed onstage during an event in New York, other writers are voicing their support and hoping he’s OK.
Rushdie, the author of Midnight’s Children among other works, was “stabbed in the neck,” police said, during the lead-up to a planned lecture in western New York, The Guardian reported.
During the event at the Chautauqua Institution, a reporter with the Associated Press said he witnessed a man “storm the stage” and “begin assaulting Rushdie as he was being introduced,” the article said.
“The author was taken or fell to the floor, and the man was restrained and taken into custody,” The Guardian article reported.
Rushdie was quickly rushed to an area hospital by helicopter, but his condition is “not yet known,” according to a statement from authorities.
Horror author Stephen King offered his concern over the incident on Twitter Friday.
“I hope Salman Rushdie is okay.”
Fantasy novelist and comic book author Neil Gaiman similarly voiced distress over his “friend” and “a good man” Rushdie being attacked.
“I’m shocked and distressed to see my friend @SalmanRushdie has been attacked before a talk. He’s a good man and a brilliant one and I hope he’s okay.”
Rushdie was famously the subject of death threats from Iran from the controversy that sparked from his 1988 book, The Satanic Verses.
People who saw the event said the attacker was wearing a “black mask,” with one witness saying about 15 spectators rushed the stage to seemingly offer Rushdie help, The Guardian said.
This is a developing story.
