Hadi Matar, who attacked Mumbai-born Salman Rushdie, is facing charges of attempted murder and assault. The 24-year-old New Jersey man stabbed Rushdie in the neck on Friday, hours before the author was scheduled to speak at an event in New York.

The New York State Police said that the Bureau of Criminal Investigation arrested Hadi Matar of Fairview, New Jersey for “attempted murder 2nd degree and assault 2nd degree”.

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Matar was processed at SP Jamestown and transported to Chautauqua County Jail and will be arraigned in centralised arraignment on Saturday, news agency PTI reported.

Matar, like other visitors, had obtained a pass to enter the Chautauqua Institution’s 750-acre grounds, Michael Hill, the institution’s president, said.

The suspect’s attorney, public defender Nathaniel Barone, said he was still gathering information about the incident and did not comment further. Matar’s home was blocked off by authorities, Associated Press reported.

Rabbi Charles Savenor, one of the attendees, described the attack on Salman Rushdie, which according to him lasted for about 20 seconds. The assailant ran onto the platform “and started pounding on Mr. Rushdie. At first, you’re like, ‘What’s going on?’ And then it became abundantly clear in a few seconds that he was being beaten,” Savenor said.

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Rushdie, 75, suffered a damaged liver, severed nerves in an arm and an eye, and was on a ventilator and unable to speak, his agent Andrew Wylie said Friday evening. Rushdie was likely to lose the injured eye.

Rushdie, a native of India who has since lived in Britain and the US, is known for his surreal and satirical prose style, beginning with his Booker Prize-winning novel from 1981, “Midnight’s Children,” in which he sharply criticized India’s then-prime minister, Indira Gandhi.