Updated 10pm

British author Salman Rushdie was attacked on Friday as he was about to give a lecture in New York, according to international reports.

Associated Press reported that one of its journalists witnessed a man storm the stage at the Chautauqua Institution and begin punching or stabbing Rushdie as he was being introduced.

The 75-year-old author, whose writing led to death threats from Iran over the years, fell to the floor while the attacker was restrained.

New York state police said Rushdie suffered an apparent stab wound to the neck, and was transported by helicopter to an area hospital. His condition is not yet known.  The interviewer suffered a minor head injury. 

By 10pm his condition was not yet known.

A 1989 file photo shows fundamentalists burn an effigie of Salman Rushdie who they are accuse of blasphemy. Photo: AFP

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

He was forced into hiding in the UK for a decade because the Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran issued a 1989 fatwa, or religious edict, ordering Muslims to kill the author, saying his book insulted Islam.

The Iranian government declared in 1998 that it would not support the fatwa but could not rescind it.

Rewards amounting to millions of dollars have also been promised in return for his death.

Rushdie participated in 2020's Malta Book Festival alongside author and former prime minister Alfred Sant.

Salman Rushdie in dates: 

June 19, 1947: He is born in Bombay, now Mumbai, in India. 

1981: His second novel, Midnight's Children, wins the Booker Prize. In 2008 it is named the Booker of Bookers after winning a public vote for the best Booker-winning novel in 40 years of the award. 

1988: The Satanic Verses is released and swiftly banned in Bangladesh, Pakistan, South Africa and other countries. It is banned for import to India.

1989: Iran issues a fatwa, or religious decree, that calls for Rushdie to be killed for insulting Islam in The Satanic Verses. He is driven underground and for over a decade lives between safe houses and under the pseudonym Joseph Anton.

1990: Newsweek publishes an essay by Rushdie, In Good Faith, in which he seeks to defend the novel. 

1993: He participates in the founding of the International Parliament of Writers aimed at protecting writers and freedom of speech. It is dissolved in 2003. 

2005: Shalimar the Clown is published, with many narrative threads revolving around Kashmir. 

2007: He is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to literature, prompting widespread Muslim protests, notably in Pakistan.

2009: Iran says the fatwa is "still valid". 

2012: Publication of his memoir Joseph Anton, looking back at his years underground. 

2015: Two Years, Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights, is released.

2016: Having lived in New York for around 20 years he becomes a US citizen.

2020: He is short-listed for the Booker Prize for Quichotte, a modern version of the Cervantes classic. 

Rushdie with music professor Laura Falzon and poet Immanuel Mifsud in 2016 in New York.