Satanic Verses author Salman Rushdie has lost vision in one eye and the use of one hand following an assassination attempt in New York in August. 

“He’s lost the sight of one eye. He had three serious wounds in his neck. One hand is incapacitated because the nerves in his arm were cut,” Andrew Wylie, a New York-based agent, told Spain’s El País newspaper. “It was a brutal attack.”

Mr Rushdie had been placed on a ventilator after being attacked on stage in August during a lecture at Chautauqua Institution in New York. 

Some Muslims regard the book as blasphemous.

The man charged over the attack, US-born Hadi Matar, 24, has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder.

The controversial Satanic Verses sent Mr Rushdie into hiding for nine years as the novel sparked outrage among Muslims, who considered its content to be blasphemous, and was banned in some Islamic countries. 

In 1989, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini called for Mr Rushdie’s execution and offered a $3 million (£2.5 million) reward.

Mr Rushdie has been residing in the United States and has been placed under police protection due to threats to his life.