CNN — Famed author Salman Rushdie is recovering at a hospital after he was repeatedly stabbed on stage Friday in front of a New York audience in an attack that left him with severe injuries, his family said.
The family of the 75-year-old author – who has for decades lived under threat because of his writings – said he was in critical condition Sunday after the attack, which ended with the assailant held down by staff and guests and Rushdie airlifted to a hospital.
“Though his life changing injuries are severe, his usual feisty & defiant sense of humor remains intact,” his son Zafar Rushdie said in a Sunday statement.
Rushdie was taken off a ventilator over the weekend but was still being treated for injuries including three stab wounds to his neck, four stab wounds to his stomach, puncture wounds to his right eye and chest, and a laceration on his right thigh, Chautauqua County District Attorney Jason Schmidt said Saturday, adding the author may lose his right eye.
The suspect, identified as 24-year-old Hadi Matar, of Fairview, New Jersey, was arrested by a state trooper after the attack and taken into custody.
Authorities are investigating what motivated the stabbing, which has prompted the state to increase police presence in Chautauqua, New York State Police Superintendent Kevin Bruen said.
Rushdie’s writings have won him literary prizes – and much scrutiny. His fourth novel, “The Satanic Verses,” drew condemnation from some Muslims who found it to be sacrilegious. The late Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who described the book as an insult to Islam and Prophet Mohammed, issued a religious decree, or fatwa, calling for Rushdie’s death in 1989.
Iran, in its first official reaction to Friday’s attack, Iran blamed Rushdie and “his supporters.”
“Regarding the attack on Salman Rushdie, we do not consider anyone other than (Rushdie) and his supporters worth of blame and even condemnation,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said in a televised news conference Monday.
Iranian officials “categorically and seriously deny any connection of the assailant with Iran,” Kanaani added, according to Iranian state media. “We have not seen anything else about the individual that carried out this act other than what we’ve seen from American media. We categorically and seriously deny any connection of the assailant with Iran.”