Salman Rushdie lost sight in eye, use of hand in attack, says agent

Author Salman Rushdie lost vision in one eye and was left "incapacitated" in a hand after he was stabbed in the United States in August, his agent said in an interview published this weekend.

The 75-year-old writer, who had received several threats for his writing, was stabbed several times in the neck and abdomen before he was due to give a talk in the state of New York.

Rushdie was then air-lifted to a nearby hospital for emergency surgery but his condition had improved in the weeks after.

"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. And he has about 15 more wounds in his chest and torso," Andrew Wylie told Spanish daily El Pais, providing an update on Rushdie's health.

The injuries "were profound... it was a brutal attack", Wylie added.

He would not give any information about the writer's whereabouts, or whether he was still in hospital, but said: "He's going to live."