Salman Rushdie off ventilator, able to speak following stabbing attack

• Salman Rushdie has been removed from a ventilator and is able to speak after being stabbed Friday.

• Michael Hill, the president of the Chautauqua Institution where the attack occurred, tweeted the news.

• Rushdie was stabbed roughly 10 times as he took the stage to deliver a lecture

Salman Rushdie is able to speak and has been removed from a ventilator after being stabbed roughly 10 times Friday as he was preparing to deliver a lecture.

Michael Hill, president of the Chautauqua Institution where the attack occurred, tweeted the news. BBC reported Rushdie's agent, Andrew Wylie, confirmed the 75-year-old author's condition.

Previously, Wylie told The New York Times: "The news is not good. Salman will likely lose one eye; the nerves in his arm were severed; and his liver was stabbed and damaged."

Rushdie, whose magical realism novel "The Satanic Verses" prompted Iranian cleric Ayatollah Khomeini to issue a fatwa calling for his assassination in 1989, was attacked Friday at the Chautauqua Institution as he took the stage to deliver a lecture.

The writer's injuries included three stab wounds to his neck and four to his stomach, puncture wounds to his right eye and chest, as well as a laceration on his right thigh, CNN reported Chautauqua County District Attorney Jason Schmidt said during the arraignment of Hadi Matar, the 24-year-old accused of stabbing Rushdie.

Matar pled not guilty to charges of attempted murder and assault with a weapon during his arraignment on Saturday.

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