Sir Salman Rushdie, the author whose writing led to death threats from Iran in the 1980s, was attacked on Friday as he was about to give a lecture in western New York.

An Associated Press reporter witnessed a man storm the stage at the Chautauqua Institution and begin punching or stabbing Sir Salman as he was being introduced.

The author was taken or fell to the floor, and the man was restrained.

Sir Salman’s condition was not immediately known.

Sir Salman’s book The Satanic Verses has been banned in Iran since 1988, as many Muslims consider it to be blasphemous.

A year later, Iran’s late leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, or edict, calling for Sir Salman’s death.

A bounty of over three million dollars was offered for anyone who kills the British-Indian author, although the Iranian government has long since distanced itself from Khomeini’s decree, but anti-Rushdie sentiment lingered.

In 2012, a semi-official Iranian religious foundation raised the bounty for Sir Salman to 3.3 million dollars (now £2.7m).

Sir Salman dismissed that threat at the time, saying there was “no evidence” of people being interested in the reward.

That year, Sir Salman published a memoir, Joseph Anton, about the fatwa.