The Satanic Verses author was left blind in one eye after a 24-year-old man allegedly stormed the stage and attacked him at a literary festival in New York

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.

Two-and-a-half years after Salman Rushdie was repeatedly and nearly fatally stabbed at a public appearance, the renowned author is expected to testify at the trial of his alleged attacker, which began Tuesday.