The British-Indian writer has been left with life-changing injuries (Picture: AP)
Salman Rushdie has lost sight in an eye and the use of one of his hands after a knifeman attacked him in New York, his agent has revealed.
The British-American novelist was stabbed in the neck and torso moments before he was due to give a talk on artistic freedom at a literary event on August 12.
Miraculously, the 75-year-old survived the attack but until now, the full extent of his injuries had been unclear.
His agent, Andrew Wylie, told El Pais his client suffered three serious wounds to his neck and 15 more to his chest and torso.
He described the author’s wounds as ‘profound’, and noted the loss of sight of one eye.
‘He had three serious wounds in his neck. One hand is incapacitated because the nerves in his arm were cut,’ Mr Wylie added.
‘And he has about 15 more wounds in his chest and torso. So, it was a brutal attack.’
Author Salman Rushdie is helped by people after he was stabbed on stage before his scheduled speech at the Chautauqua Institution (Picture: Reuters)
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Mr Rushdie during a book signing event in central London (Picture: PA)
He refused to give further information about the victim’s whereabouts, including if he is still recovering in hospital, but added that ‘he is going to live… that is the more important thing’.
Mr Rushdie is best known for his book, The Satanic Verses, which forced him into hiding after Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for his death in 1989.
Some Muslims saw passages in the novel about the Prophet Muhammad as blasphemous.
The writer, who was born in India to a Muslim Kashmiri family, has lived with a bounty on his head for decades.
Hadi Matar, the man accused in the attempted murder of the British author (Picture: AFP)
Asked about the 33-year-old fatwa against Mr Rushdie, his agent said that the principal danger was going to be from a ‘random person’.
He said: ‘The attack was something that Salman and I have discussed in the past, which was that the principal danger that he faced so many years after the fatwa was imposed is from a random person coming out of nowhere and attacking [him].
‘So, you can’t protect against that because it’s totally unexpected and illogical.’
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Mr Wylie compared the attack to the murder of John Lennon, who was shot to death outside his apartment building.
The day after the brutal attack, New York state police named the suspected knifeman as Hadi Matar, of Fairview, New Jersey.
The 24-year-old pleaded not guilty to Mr Rushdie’s attempted murder and assault.
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‘It was like John Lennon’s murder.’