News outlets said that author Salman Rushdie was attacked on Friday in New York, US, moments before he was set to deliver a lecture. In the 1980s, he received death threats from Iran because of his writing.
The interviewer, Henry Reese, also suffered a minor head injury. Mr Reese is the co-founder of a non-profit that provides sanctuary to writers exiled under threat of persecution.
The suspect was immediately taken into custody, police said.
As Rushdie was being introduced, an Associated Press reporter saw a man attack the stage at the Chautauqua Institution and start hitting or stabbing Rushdie. The author was carried off or knocked to the ground, and the man was bound.
Mark Sommer, a reporter for Buffalo News, told the BBC News Channel that the attacker had emerged from the audience in a black mask.
A video posted online shows attendees rushing onto the stage immediately following the incident.
Iran has outlawed Rushdie’s “The Satanic Verses” since 1988 because many Muslims view it as disrespectful. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the late president of Iran, called for Rushdie’s execution in a fatwa, or decree, that was published a year later. Rushdie’s assassination has apparently attracted a bounty of more than $3 million.
The bounty over Mr Rushdie’s head remains active, and although Iran’s government has distanced itself from Khomeini’s decree, a quasi-official Iranian religious foundation added a further $500,000 to the reward in 2012.
The British-American citizen – who was born to non-practising Muslims and is an atheist himself – has become a vocal advocate for freedom of expression, defending his work on several occasions.
The British author William Dalrymple, who lives in Delhi, was among the first to respond and hoped that Mr. Rushdie wasn’t wounded. He tweeted, “A dreadful day for literature, expression freedom, and writers worldwide. Poor Salman, I hope he doesn’t get wounded and gets well soon,”