Salman Rushdie stabbed on stage

British author Salman Rushdie, whose writings have made him the target of Iranian death threats, was attacked and stabbed in the neck at a literary event on Friday in western New York state.

Police said that a male suspect stormed the stage and attacked Rushdie and an interviewer, with the writer suffering "an apparent stab wound to the neck."

He was rushed by helicopter to a local hospital, police said, adding that his condition was not known.

New York governor Kathy Hochul said Rushdie was alive, and hailed him as "an individual who has spent decades speaking truth to power."

"We condemn all violence, and we want people to be able to feel (the) freedom to speak and to write truth," she said.

A state trooper assigned to the event at the Chautauqua Institution, where Rushdie was due to give a talk, immediately took the suspect into custody.

Police gave no details about the suspect's identity or any probable motive.

Social media footage showed people rushing to Rushdie's aid and administering emergency medical care. The interviewer also suffered a head injury in the attack.

Rushdie, 75, was propelled into the spotlight with his second novel "Midnight's Children" in 1981, which won international praise and Britain's prestigious Booker Prize for its portrayal of post-independence India.

But his 1988 book "The Satanic Verses" brought attention beyond his imagination when it sparked a fatwa, or religious decree, calling for his death.