Jurors have watched videos showing Salman Rushdie being repeatedly stabbed on a stage in western New York while audience members gasped in horror at the attack that left the prized-winning novelist seriously wounded and blinded in one eye.

The author recounted in vivid testimony the moment when an attacker stabbed him about 15 times as he was about to give a lecture in western New York.

The trial started with prosecutors outlining their case against suspect Hadi Matar before they called two witnesses to the stand.

A man injured alongside author Salman Rushdie in a knife attack on a New York lecture stage told jurors that he tried to stop the assault once he realized it wasn't a prank and was left with a gash above his eye.

Salman Rushdie appeared in court on Tuesday to testify in the trial of the man who is accused of trying to murder him onstage at a talk in western New York in 2022. “It occurred to me that I was dying.

Hadi Matar is charged with attempted murder in the attack, which took place in 2022 as Mr. Rushdie was about to speak at an arts conference in western New York.

Henry Reese is co-founder of City of Asylum Pittsburgh, part of a network providing refuge for persecuted writers that Sir Salman inspired.