NEW YORK : Author Salman Rushdie, who was stabbed at a literary event in New York, is currently on a ventilator and unable to speak, his agent said.

In a statement late Friday night, Rushdie's agent Andrew Wylie said: " Salman will likely lose one eye; the nerves in his arm were severed; and his liver was stabbed and damaged," according to reports.

Around 11 a.m. on Friday, the assailant stormed the stage of the event at the Chautauqua Institution attended by hundreds of people and stabbed the 75-year-old Indian-born novelist, a police spokesperson said.

The suspect, a 24-year-old man named Hadi Matar from Fairview, New Jersey, was then tackled by several event staff members and fans and taken to the ground, according to the spokesman. 

Before rescue personnel arrived and flew the author to the hospital in a helicopter, Rushdie was being treated by a doctor who was in the crowd. Authorities claim that he was stabbed at least once in the neck and once in the abdomen. The spokesman stated that the perpetrator is believed to have operated alone.

Rushdie was delivering a speech at a cultural centre as a part of the "More than Shelter" lecture series, which was designed to address the US as a shelter for persecuted writers and exiled artists.

Ayatollah Khomeini, the leader of the Iranian Revolution at the time, issued a fatwa against Rushdie in 1988 because of his book "The Satanic Verses," calling for the author's execution.

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