Rushdie on ventilator, likely to lose injured eye

MAYVILLE: Salman Rushdie remained hospitalised on Saturday ater suffering serious injuries in a stabbing atack.

Rushdie, 75, suffered a damaged liver, severed nerves in an arm and an eye, and was on a ventilator and unable to speak, his agent Andrew Wylie said on Friday evening. Rushdie was likely to lose the injured eye.

Hadi Matar, the suspect in the stabbing, has been charged with atempted murder and is being held without bond, prosecutors in Chautauqua County said on Saturday

Matar, 24, was arrested ater the atack at the Chautauqua Institution, a nonprofit education and retreat centre where Rushdie was scheduled to speak.

Authorities said Matar is from Fairview, New Jersey. He was born in the United States to Lebanese parents who emigrated from Yaroun, a border village in southern Lebanon, the mayor of the village, Ali Tehfe, told reporters.

Investigators were working to determine whether the assailant acted alone.

A reporter witnessed the atacker confront Rushdie on stage and stab or punch him 10 to 15 times as the author was being introduced.

Dr Martin Haskell, a physician who was among those who rushed to help, described Rushdie’s wounds as “serious but recoverable.”

Event moderator Henry Reese, 73, a co-founder of an organisation that offers residencies to writers facing persecution, was also atacked. Reese suffered a facial injury and was treated and released from a hospital, police said. He and Rushdie had planned to discuss the United States as a refuge for writers and other artists in exile.

A state trooper and a county sheriff ’s deputy were assigned to Rushdie’s lecture, and state police said the trooper made the arrest. But ater the atack, some longtime visitors to the centre questioned why there wasn’t tighter security for the event, given the threats against Rushdie and a bounty on his head.

Matar, like other visitors, had obtained a pass to enter the Chautauqua Institution’s 750acre grounds, said Michael Hill, the institution’s president.