Nigella Lawson, who is a good friend of Salman Rushdie, has told fans she is ‘distraught’ after the author was attacked ahead of giving a lecture in New York.
Rushdie, 75, was while sitting on stage just as he was about to give a speech.
Multiple stars, including fellow literary greats, have flooded social media with their prayers and well-wishes after he was taken to hospital.
Lawson, who has been a close friend of the Satanic Verses author since she was 23, is amongst the stars to have reacted after he was attacked on stage in New York.
The cookery icon penned: ‘Such shocking news of Salman Rushdie having been stabbed. This is horrific. Am distraught.
‘Please, please let him be ok,’ she added, before being inundated with support from her 2.7million followers.
The Shining author Stephen King also tweeted his concern, writing: ‘I hope Salman Rushdie is okay.’
Meanwhile, political journalist and author Ian Dunt wrote: ‘Please let him be ok.’
Harry Potter JK Rowling added her shock on Twitter, commenting: ‘Horrifying news.
‘Feeling very sick right now. Let him be ok.’
‘Sending lots of prayers to and Rachel Eliza Griffiths. I kind of can’t believe it. I hope he’s okay,’ added journalist Molly Jong-Fast.
Journalist and author of Empireland, Sathnam Sanghera, tweeted: ‘Passage from Midnight’s Children in my last ever exam. Poster of The Moor’s Last Sigh had place on my (pretentious) student bedroom wall. Quote from Satanic Verses opens Empireland.
‘Lots of British Asian writers wouldn’t be writers without him. Pray he’s well.’
The incident happened at the Chautauqua Institution, about 55 miles southwest of Buffalo in a rural corner of New York, which hosts a summer lecture series.
The interviewer suffered a ‘minor head injury’ and a New York state trooper ‘assigned to the event immediately took the suspect into custody’.
While the attacker’s motive remains unclear at this stage, the author has been a target since his book The Satanic Verses was released in 1988.
The work, which was partly influenced by the life of Mohammed, was attacked by authoritarian Muslim leaders, most notably the Iranian ayatollah, and is banned in Iran.
