The award winning novelist Salman Rushdie, who authored "The Satanic Verses" about Islam, has been stabbed (and likely killed) in New York.

Witnesses said he was stabbed on stage just as he was about to give a speech at the Chautauqua Institution western New York State.

The map below shows the location of the town in which the incident took place:

A witness at the scene said the attacker had been detained after the 75-year-old was attacked.

His condition remains unclear, but witnesses say CPR was being administered at the scene.

While the assailant’s motive remains unclear at this stage, the author has been a target for Islamists ever since he released the novel The Satanic Verses.

Lauded by critics, the 1998 book, which was partly influenced by the life of Mohammed, was attacked by authoritarian Muslims leaders, most notably the Iranian ayatollah.

In 1999, Ruhollah Khomeini ordered his followers to kill Mr Rushdie, a pronouncement which meant he required 24/7 police protection.

He spent years in hiding after the order was made and police have uncovered several plots on his life.

While no longer officially backed by the Iranian government, the country’s supreme leader has never withdrawn the fatwa.

A bounty of over $3 million has also been offered for anyone who kills the author.

In 2012, a semi-official Iranian religious foundation raised the bounty for Rushdie from $2.8 million to $3.3 million.