(Reuters) - Salman Rushdie lost sight in one eye and the use of one hand following an attack on stage at

a literary event in western New York in August, his agent said.

FILE PHOTO: The writer Salman Rushdie interviewed during Heartland Festival in Kvaerndrup

FILE PHOTO: The writer Salman Rushdie interviewed during Heartland Festival in Kvaerndrup

© Reuters/SCANPIX DENMARK

Andrew Wylie, who represents literary giants such as Saul Bellow and Roberto Bolano, described the
extent of the injuries Rushdie suffered in the "brutal" attack in an interview with Spanish newspaper El
Pais.

Wylie described the author's wounds as "profound," and noted the loss of sight of one eye. "He had
three serious wounds in his neck. One hand is incapacitated because the nerves in his arm were cut. And
he has about 15 more wounds in his chest and torso."

FILE PHOTO: Author Salman Rushdie is transported to a helicopter after he was stabbed at the
Chautauqua Institution

FILE PHOTO: Author Salman Rushdie is transported to a helicopter after he was stabbed at the
Chautauqua Institution

© Reuters/TWITTER @HORATIOGATES3

The agent declined to say whether "The Satanic Verses" author, 75, was still in hospital more than two
months after police said a 24-year-old New Jersey man stabbed the writer in the neck and torso just
before Rushdie was to give a lecture at Chautauqua Institution, a retreat about 12 miles (19 km) from
Lake Erie.

FILE PHOTO: Hadi Matar appears in court on charges of attempted murder and assault on author Salman
Rushdie, in Mayville, New York

FILE PHOTO: Hadi Matar appears in court on charges of attempted murder and assault on author Salman
Rushdie, in Mayville, New York

© Reuters/LINDSAY DEDARIO

Related video: Salman Rushdie lost sight in one eye after August attack, agent says

Salman Rushdie has lost sight in one eye as well as the use of one of

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The novelist was rushed to the hospital after sustaining severe injuries in the attack, including nerve
damage in his arm, wounds to his liver, and the likely loss of an eye, Wylie said at the time.

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The attack came 33 years after Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, then Iran's supreme leader, issued a fatwa,
or religious edict, calling on Muslims to assassinate Rushdie a few months after "The Satanic Verses" was
published. Some Muslims saw passages in the novel about the Prophet Muhammad as blasphemous.

Rushdie, who was born in India to a Muslim Kashmiri family, has lived with a bounty on his head, and
spent nine years in hiding under British police protection.

While Iran's pro-reform government of President Mohammad Khatami distanced itself from the fatwa in
the late 1990s, the multimillion-dollar bounty hanging over Rushdie's head kept growing and the fatwa
was never lifted.

Khomeini's successor, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was suspended from Twitter in 2019 for
saying the fatwa against Rushdie was "irrevocable."

The man accused of attacking the novelist has pleaded not guilty to second-degree attempted murder
and assault charges. He is being held without bail in a western New York jail.
(Reporting by Maria Caspani, Editing by Bill Berkrot)